Gorilla & King Investing (G&K)

[mikeanthony]

Hope everyone gets some DKGR on monday.

[Eric]

cuf,

Drink some hot chocolate, pull out a book, and read yourself to sleep.

No goin to sleep with the Hawks on the loose. Final 8 time.

- ice -

[Uncle_Frank]

Having withdrawal symptoms, are we?

Drink some hot chocolate, pull out a book, and read yourself to sleep. Big Bob will have SI back online before you know it. .

[Eric]

He's Turnin in:

http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=2681563

- E -

[Eric]

Qualcomm: The future Role of Paul E. Jacobs

Pictures and Charts at link below:

>> As Qualcomm Plots Future, C.E.O.'s Son Awaits Role

Matt Richtel
The New York Times
April 14, 2003

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/14/technology/14QUAL.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5062&en=e5189679687....

As a young man, Paul E. Jacobs discussed antennas and data transmission rates with his father the way many of his friends and their fathers talked balls and strikes. So in 1985, when Irwin M. Jacobs started Qualcomm, a pioneering firm in mobile phone technologies, it was natural for his son to spend summers working there.

"We would talk about all the angles sitting at dinner, driving everyone else crazy," said Paul, who began work on a doctorate in electrical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley the same year Qualcomm was founded. "We had a mission."

Qualcomm, now a $3 billion maker of software and microprocessors for mobile phones, has steadily grown into one of the titans of wireless software though consumers may now know it best for its Eudora e-mail software.

Today, Irwin Jacobs, a founder and driving force of Qualcomm, holds the corner office. Down the hall is Paul Jacobs, the president of Qualcomm's Internet and wireless group, one of the company's most important divisions, and who is considered by many inside the company and by some outside of it to be a strong candidate to succeed his father as chief executive.

For now, the elder Mr. Jacobs, at 69, is showing no signs of quitting or reducing his role in the company. And he has offered no indication about who his successor might be. But Paul Jacobs, 40, has made quite clear that he hopes to be chosen. Asked when his father might step aside, Paul Jacobs laughed and said: "Ask him when that might be. Then tell me what he said."

The company's board might see promise in having another Jacobs at the helm. The younger Mr. Jacobs is generally favorably regarded by the board and Wall Street as an innovative engineer. But a potential strike against Paul Jacobs is that he was the manager in charge of Qualcomm's troubled handset division, which briefly ceased production in 1998 because of connector problems within its mobile phones. The division was later sold. Also in his disfavor, thorny management problems are often raised by having a family member succeed another in a Fortune 500 company.

Corporate governance watchdogs are often skeptical when succession turns into a family affair. In businesses large and small, there are at least as many examples of children faring worse in the family business than there are of those who did better than their parents.

In the case of Qualcomm, said Nell Minow, the editor of the Corporate Library, a corporate governance research group, "This board should be very clear about what their succession plan is, and they're going to have to do better than say, `This guy is in the family.' "

Neither the company's annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission nor its Web site, for example, mentions the Jacobs's familial relationships, said Paul Hodgson, a compensation expert with the Corporate Library. A second Jacobs son, Jeff, also works at the company as the leader of its global development division.

According to Mr. Hodgson, Irwin Jacobs earned $63.5 million last year, $61 million of that from stock options. Paul Jacobs earned $4.2 million last year, with $3.4 million from options. Salary information for Jeff Jacobs was not available.

Although family connections are a prominent part of corporate life at Qualcomm, Wall Street analysts have not necessarily found that situation to be a hindrance to the company's performance. On the contrary. "Against a very strong headwind and against all of these critics, Qualcomm has won," said Mark A. Roberts, an analyst with Wachovia Securities.

In the mid-1990's, the company had to overcome skepticism that its technology would take hold. It pioneered the commercial use of CDMA, which stands for code division multiple access, one of the two dominant standards for how data and voice traffic are delivered over wireless networks. Already, that standard is used by 40 percent of mobile phone subscribers in the United States for voice traffic.

But worldwide, 80 percent of phone users rely on the competing standard, GSM, or global system for mobile. Both standards are poised to upgrade to a third generation — the so-called 3G of mobile networks — which will allow faster delivery of data. These new networks will enable phones to become mobile entertainment devices with animated games, video capability and high-speed Internet access.

Qualcomm currently earns a royalty of around 5 percent of the wholesale price of each cellphone sold that relies on CDMA technology. It expects eventually to get a similar percentage for 3G phones based not only on its new standard, CDMA2000, but also on those based on the competing standard, W-CDMA, the wideband version of CDMA, which includes both CDMA and GSM software. The reason is that in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, where GSM is dominant, mobile phone carriers have said they intend to make their phones compatible with CDMA, making them likely to adopt the W-CDMA standard.

But it may take as long as a decade before W-CDMA becomes widespread. And there is the risk that another wireless technology could emerge in the interim. Still, some Wall Street analysts are sanguine about Qualcomm's prospects for remaining a leader in its field.

"Assuming 3G gets deployed, I liken Qualcomm to a toll road," said Mr. Roberts, the Wachovia analyst. "If you want to get on the road, you'll have to pay a toll to Qualcomm." Within six years, 50 percent of cellphones in the United States will use CDMA, Mr. Roberts predicted. He said he believed Qualcomm would eventually receive royalties on 80 to 90 percent of all mobile phones because they will include some form of CDMA. Others are more skeptical about whether CDMA is the best long-term technological solution.

CDMA licensing is one of the two pillars of Qualcomm's business. The other is the manufacturing and sale of the chip sets that power mobile phones. That line of business is less certain and generally less profitable than collecting CDMA royalty fees. But it can offer the prospect of high revenues, which explains why Qualcomm has begun an ambitious effort to expand its chip set business where its only real competition is Nokia.

In the future, Qualcomm wants to be a leader in manufacturing chip sets for use in the W-CDMA standard, which means it will have to engage in fierce competition with Motorola, Texas Instruments and Intel, among others. Whether Qualcomm succeeds is "the billion-dollar question," Mr. Roberts said.

In the shorter term, the question is whether Qualcomm can keep its stock price from eroding. The price reached $200 a share in early 2000, and then declined along with the rest of the technology industry. It closed Friday at $31.88, but even at this price some analysts worry that the stock is valued too highly compared with the rest of its sector.

For now, the challenge of leading Qualcomm falls to Irwin Jacobs, who taught electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1959 to 1966 and was a founder of a company called Linkabit, which designed telecommunications equipment in the 1970's and early 1980's.

In the summer of 1985, while driving from Los Angeles to San Diego, he came up with the idea for using CDMA for mobile networks. The telecommunications world initially dismissed this approach because TDMA, or time division multiple access, another technology, was considered the one likely to become the basis for mobile phone communication.

Mr. Jacobs proved that CDMA could provide better clarity and security than TDMA. And now Verizon Communications and Sprint, among others, use CDMA to operate their networks. With astute marketing, he has created a hugely profitable intellectual property business. In the first quarter of its 2003 fiscal year, which ended Dec. 29, the company announced $1.07 billion in revenue and $344.7 million in profit.

"Irwin is one of the world's best communications scientists," said Robert E. Kahn, a member of Qualcomm's board, a former colleague of Mr. Jacobs's at M.I.T., and one of the creators of the Internet. "He understands the theory and the practical application."

Paul Jacobs has as intense an interest in the science of telecommunications as his father. Instead of entering the academic life as a professor, he joined Qualcomm in 1990 shortly after he received his doctorate from Berkeley. During his early years at Qualcomm, he worked on the engineering for the antenna of Qualcomm's OmniTracs system, which is used to track the routes of freight trucks. He worked on the speech compression algorithm for CDMA, and holds a patent for part of the technology — one of more than 25 Qualcomm patents that he helped develop. (Qualcomm currently has 2,655 patents issued or pending.)

In 1995, he took over Qualcomm's fledgling handset business. The goal was to make phones in a partnership with Sony that would prove the viability of the CDMA technology. But that enterprise was plagued by manufacturing problems and in 2000 Qualcomm sold the handset business. Paul Jacobs said that episode created strains in his relationship with the board that are still evident. "I suspect I'm still working on it," he said.

More recently, he has been the driving force behind BREW, the binary runtime environment for wireless, a platform that allows the development of numerous applications for mobile phones, including games, that Qualcomm hopes will drive demand for wireless networks.

"I have a vision for this company," he said. "I believe the wireless Internet will become bigger than the wired Internet." But whether he can lead Qualcomm with that vision will depend on the board. "If the board thinks it'll happen, it'll happen. If they don't, it won't."

For now, board members are not talking about a successor. "The board isn't going to get into a deliberation on that until it's clear that Irwin is stepping down," Mr. Kahn said. He added that Paul Jacobs has compiled a good track record. "He has a very strong technical background and he's been given a lot of challenges. He has coped with all of those challenges."

The board itself will come under scrutiny in coming months. The Corporate Library plans to publish its annual ratings of corporate boards in late May. Ms. Minow said the group has concerns that Qualcomm's board is not providing sufficient oversight. For now, she said, one of the board's top priorities should be determining how it will deal with the eventual departure of a chief executive who turns 70 in October. "The No. 1 job of the board is C.E.O. succession planning," she said.

For his part, Irwin Jacobs is saying little about his future. He said that he continued to love his work. He also said, in an apparent nod to his son Paul: "This business has been quite successful with someone who has an engineering background. You take good people wherever you can get them."

Whether the board will agree is an open question, but there is no doubt that Irwin Jacobs is proud of the connection between his family and his company. When asked how many of his 10 grandchildren he would like to see at Qualcomm, Mr. Jacobs responded immediately, "I'd like to see 11." <<

- Eric -

[Eric]

OK Fellow Gamers,

Welcome to the bomb shelter.

SI has gotten pretty class of late.

They warned us in advance and even have a message posted as to why you can't access the site:

Silicon Investor is currently down for routine maintenance, and should be online at approximately 7:00 PM ET.

- Eric -

[Eric]

A sorta FAQ on IHub "settings" from Bob

http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msgs.asp?board_id=908&NextStart=201&BatchSize=100

- Eric -

[areokat]

That looks a lot like mine. Duke gives me the same kind of look.
"What, your going somewhere on a week-end,not likely." He just let's me go to work so I can make money to pay for his dog food.

Kat

[Uncle_Frank]

>> get so good at picture taking that people will throw money at you

It would be nice, but I don't think it works like that Kat. My last subject just threw dirty looks at me.

[areokat]

I'm going to work on getting better at investing next.

Your other option is to get so good at picture taking that people will throw money at you. LOL

Kat

[Uncle_Frank]

I'm going to work on getting better at investing next.

[areokat]

Nice pic uf.

Kat

So is the rose. Your getting good at that picture taking stuff.

[Uncle_Frank]

Yeah, that's my copyright mark - fdr photo. Not that I need to protect my hobby-snapshots from commercial sharks, but it's kind of cool to pretend . Thanks for the roses; here's one for you.

[Eric]

Here's to ya!



- Eric -

[Eric]

<< Did it work? >>

I had to put sunglasses on to look at it. <g>

I take it that the fdr photo indicates that the photo was taken by an Uncle named Frank, and if so ... Nice Work!

- Eric -

[Uncle_Frank]

Eric, here's another direct link test.



Did it work?

[Uncle_Frank]

Nope

[Uncle_Frank]

I think I know why the earlier photos wouldn't post. I was attempting to link from pbase.com, and they have some way of restricting you from doing so unless you're a paying member. I just converted my free account to full service, so let's see if it works now.

[Eric]

Frank,

<< Let's see if this one holds up. >>

Yo da Man!

.jpeg as well.

- Eric -

[Uncle_Frank]

One more attempt. The frustrating part is that the earlier shots worked initially, at least on my puter, but showed up as Xs later on. Let's see if this one holds up.

[Eric]

Let's try again.

I notice you are using jpg files. I am under the impression that some, but not all jpg files work.

gif files work pretty consistently and particularly if the URL begins with www.

In this URL ...

http://www.koreapen.com/caricature/no7%20Tiger%20Woods.GIF

You strip off the http:// leaving:

www.koreapen.com/caricature/no7%20Tiger%20Woods.GIF

You precede it with [chartX] (without the X) and you follow it with [/chartX] (without the X) to get

[chartX]www.koreapen.com/caricature/no7%20Tiger%20Woods.GIF[/chartX] (without the X's)

Without the X's you get this:



- Eric -

[Uncle_Frank]

That's strange. It worked when I first posted it. Let's try again. Let me know if you can see this self portrait.

[Uncle_Frank]

Like this?

[areokat]

Obviously it ain't in english.

Obviously you be right.
But on this board during these times who would notice?

Kat@exceptthethreadmaster.

[Uncle_Frank]

"I'm sure their're trying to fix the market too."

Your profile on SI says you have a graduate degree. Obviously it ain't in english.

uf

[Eric]

wimps'R'us

See Eric's post on how to imbed pictures, and tell us how to actually do it, pleeze.



- ice -

[Eric]

Frank the SuperStar

I'm assuming we still don't know how to imbed a picture.

I do.

We all do.

Frank .... Well, Frank is Frank.

Here he is workng out:

</I>

- ice -

[areokat]

I'm assuming we still don't know how to imbed a picture.
But what the heck, Eric & Frank have only been working on it since the first of the month; it's only the 24th. I'm sure their're trying to fix the market too.

Kat

[Uncle_Frank]

Hey, Matthew, we need help. See Eric's post on how to imbed pictures, and tell us how to actually do it, pleeze.

[Uncle_Frank]

Mmmm, that's as clear as the owner's manual for a Japanese camera. And to top it off, it didn't work. Thanks a lot for the help [lol].

[Eric]

cuf,

<< Hey, how'd you do that, Eric? >>

I'm having a senior moment.

Like I forgot. <g>

Let's see if I can remember.

You take the URL for a .gif file on the web

http://www.first-edition.com/PSU_Gorilla_small.gif

You eliminate the http:// so you are left with ...

www.first-edition.com/PSU_Gorilla_small.gif

You insert that between left bracket "chart" right bracket and left bracket "/chart" right bracket with no quotation marks, and no spaces.

You get:



There may be other ways that Bob could advise on but that one worked for me.

I can't remember who, but someone is drafting a board FAQ. We need one. There is a heck of a lot of evolving functionality.

All we need is some posters on company boards. <g>

- ce -

[Uncle_Frank]

Hey, how'd you do that, Eric? I'd love to be able to insert pics into my posts.

[areokat]

I guess it my turn to do the weekly post.
What's going on? Have you been baning again unk?

TK

[Eric]

Failed Test

[Eric]

Yo cuf,



- ice -

[Eric]

New IHub Feature: Knobias Quotes/News/Profiles

#msg-447725

Link located bottom right of of screen on company boards.

- Eric -

[Eric]

re: Message Filtering/Ignore

<< Glad to see it, Eric. I think it really enhances the site. >>

There is quite a bit of functionality here. Hopefully a FAQ will be developed so users will quickly be able to familiarize themselves with some of the functionality as it evolves, but for the moment IH Bob's "Site Changes (BOWIE) thread serves a useful purpose.

Matt and Bob deserve some credit. Messaging functionality keeps improving and for pure messaging functionality I rate this site top notch.

I don't need a full service financial site cum message board.

I have always preferred MSM Money central's MSN Investor (with Portfolio Manager which tops any other portfolio manager out there, IMO) to Silicon Investor as a full service financial site, and although I'll occasionally use an SI feature, I always have MSN Investor open when I'm online.

I'm delighted to see that we are up to 14,000 subscribers here, but unfortunately there is still too little activity on the company boards I am interested in.

On the other hand Zeev's thread certainly gets plenty of action here as does the A.I.M. Users Bulletin Board.

Have a great weekend,

- Eric -

[Uncle_Frank]

Glad to see it, Eric. I think it really enhances the site.

[Eric]

The IHub Ignore Function a la SI Bob

Explanation of part of Message Filtering:

#msg-433184

- Eric-

[Uncle_Frank]

Thanks for the update, Eric. I haven't been tracking the message boards on a daily basis for a while, and missed John's post.

[Eric]

Formatting posts:

One of the changes IH Bob made in February that I was unaware of:

Added support for < > and </ > tags. They're synonomous with the existing [ ] and [/ ] tags.

Put another way, any of the following are valid:

< i > or [ i ] to start italics
< /i > or [ /i ] to end italics
< b > or [ b ] to start bold
< /b > or [ /b ] to end bold
< u > or [ u ] to start underscore
< /u > or [ /u ] to end underscore
< pre > or [ pre ] to start fixed font
< /pre > or [ /pre ] to end fixed font

Note that you don't use the spaces shown above and note that bold and italics 'b' & 'i' are lower case, not the more common upper case.

- Eric -

[Eric]

IHub Changes

Bob Zumbrunnen is documenting changes to IHub on "Site Changes (BOWIE)" thread, as they are made:

http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=908

- Eric -

[Eric]

IH Bob adds a great feature:

IH Bob (fka SI Bob) just added the capability for "subscribers-only" at IHUB to pull for 10, 20, 50, 100 messages at one time.

The option is set at Tools / My Settings / Messages Per Batch in Batch-View.

This was a Browsemaster feature that SI promised to add several years ago.

- Eric -

[Eric]

John Busby on Silicon Investor & InfoSpace

Below posted by John Busby on the "Welcome to Silicon Investor!" thread at SI on Friday, Jul 12, 2002:

>> Notice to SI Members and Guests

Many of you have asked questions on the boards and through private messages to me about the future of Silicon Investor as it relates to INSP's stock price. I can't comment about these matters, so I asked InfoSpace's PR and legal teams to draft something on management's behalf that I could post. Here goes:

******************************************

To ease concerns and contrary to a number of messages posted, Silicon Investor is not ceasing operations. SI is a valuable community and piece of our Wireline network of Web sites.

Yes, recently, SI’s parent company, InfoSpace, Inc., did receive a notice from the Nasdaq, in regard to bid price deficiency, as have many companies affected by the negative stock market conditions.

In accordance with Nasdaq rules regarding minimum bid prices, InfoSpace has 90 days (until Oct. 1) to regain compliance with its stock trading above $1 for 10 consecutive trading days. The Company has various tools at its disposal to address this issue and the Board of Directors is currently evaluating options and will respond in the near term.

It is important to note, that at the end of the first quarter 2002, InfoSpace had cash, investments, and a payroll tax receivable totaling $289 million. In addition, InfoSpace had investments in private and public securities of $31 million and NO debt.

Finally, InfoSpace is a Company, despite challenges, in a strong position. For example, InfoSpace is well diversified with three distinct business units: Wireline, Merchant and Wireless. For the first quarter of 2002, InfoSpace announced its Merchant and Wireline Business Units were profitable on a pro forma basis. These two business units accounted for approximately 80 percent of first quarter revenue. Also, for the first quarter of 2002, InfoSpace announced growth in key metrics across all three business units.

I hope this information is helpful.
******************************************

Thanks to everyone for your continued support of Silicon Investor.

Have a good weekend,
John Busby

###

- Eric -

[Eric]

Kat,

re: LTB&H Investing

Your spending some time on NPI at TMF aren't you.

Yes I am. It is a pretty darned good thread and a great complement to the G&K SI thread.

I think TMF is a very good resource, but I have always disliked the interface even though the interface has some interesting features not available elsewhere.

In general I find TMF boards slow and not overly intuitive.

I do think that implementing a (modest) fee on TMF was a good idea. the threads seem more civil since it was instituted.

I basically confine my time on TMF to the Nokia thread which is better IMO than the Nokia thread on SI, the Rule Maker thread (which I consider to be the non-tech equivalent of the SI G&K thread even though the Rule Maker Portfolio does contain 3 gorillas and a king), and now the NPI thread.

I haven't posted much to NPI and probably won't, simply for lack of time to do so.

I do consider the RTW membership to be very valuable. there is a real treasure trove in the archives and Matt has done a heck of a job.

<< Between it and Rule the World there sure is a lot more going on than at SI.

Unfortunately you are correct. I do of course get a lot of use out of the various wireless threads on SI. Ramsey's thread is a great way to stay abreast of Qualcomm and the "Coming into Range" thread can be fun.

I spend most of my SI time on the two SI Nokia threads because the Qualcomm threads do lack objectivity and I have fun researching the dark side of wireless.

I'm an inveterate Gorilla Gamer so I still consider SI G&K my home thread, and on balance it is one of the most civil and objective threads on SI, IMO.

<< But, with a little better market I think even SI will pick up.

There is no doubt in my mind that it will (if it lasts that long and I hope it does), and one of these days we WILL have a better market.

I am candidly sick to death of BearTalk and I don't trade (much).

Best,

- Eric -

[areokat]

I hold a few "others" today but by January 31st the tech side of my portfolio will be 100% G&K. My horizon to retirement however, is shorter than when I started to play the game and my portfolio will be more diversified than it was several years ago.

Eric. What is your time frame, if I may ask. Mine is a couple of years.
When you say diversified what do you mean?-tech sectors? and is the technology part like 50% of your total portfolio or something.

Asking because I'm starting to ponder asset allocation for my retirement portfolio although I still intend to have a large chunk in technology.

[e-mail]

[areokat]

but in the meantime I am spending a bit more time over here and am posting to the various wireless threads (QCOM, NOK, & ERICY) but it is a bit like talking to oneself.

Well, even G & K on SI is kind of like that. Your spending some time on NPI at TMF aren't you. Between it and Rule the World there sure is a lot more going on than at SI.

But, with a little better market I think even SI will pick up.

Kat

[Eric]

re: cheerful demeanors

For the most part <lol>

Well, I always have the Jazzy Lady with the Boa to kick my butt when I misplace mine (cheerful demeanor, not boa). <g>

I am btw, sensing the potential of a little Nasdaq resurgence, even though we are in the dog days. Barring a severe act of terror or war (which one can't rule out) I think that the Naz will run this fall, and I am paying some attention to technical analysts.

I remain convinced that in a sound economy G&K investing makes sense.

I hold a few "others" today but by January 31st the tech side of my portfolio will be 100% G&K. My horizon to retirement however, is shorter than when I started to play the game and my portfolio will be more diversified than it was several years ago.

Best,

- Eric -

[Uncle_Frank]

>> Best to all, wherever thou art

I love the fact that you still focus on the positive, and have kept your cheerful demeanor.

For the most part <lol>.

[Eric]

Kat,

re: Silicon Investor

<< Anybody else notice that SI hasn't updated a lot of their front page since July 1? >>

I sure have, and I'm also noticing more and more rumblings on various SI threads.

I am most hopeful that both InfoSpace and SI stay healthy, but in the meantime I am spending a bit more time over here and am posting to the various wireless threads (QCOM, NOK, & ERICY) but it is a bit like talking to oneself.

- Eric -