John Joyce Quotations

The Y2K lockdown was very real. It certainly impacted our largest customers.

Based on where we stand today, we expect to make these estimates.

We're not sure if it was on our property that Sean got bit, but we're at least taking care of our property.

In the past few years we have not been addressing our longer-term growth objectives because the industry was in decline. We felt it would be naive to talk about growth when we knew our customers weren't spending. But in 2003 we said that the industry had stabilized and I would characterize 2004 as a year when the IT industry will begin its next growth cycle.

We remain on track for your consensus earnings per share estimate for 2001, which is consistent with our longer term business model.

We don't have a better crystal ball than you do, but based on our fourth-quarter results and everything we know today about the coming year, we remain confident with the consensus earnings-per-share estimate for 2001, which is consistent with our longer-term business model.

We cannot be more definitive at this time, but we wanted to provide the strategic basis for these actions.

The first quarter traditionally is the weakest period of the year for technology purchases, and many of our customers chose to reduce or defer capital spending decisions until they see a sustained improvement in their businesses.

At that time, we also recognized that we'd feel price pressure in PCs and hard-disk drives. And our expectations here were right on track as well.

That's the thing about money in the United States and worldwide. It's constantly circulating.