Replies to post #43038 on Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Lane Hall-Witt]

I thought they tossed the kitchen sink during the spring reporting period.

Maybe CSCO had two kitchen sinks -- unloading them probably gave them 5 basis points on their margins. <G/NG>

More seriously, it's worth noting that CSCO has explicitly specified, on its last two conference calls, that it did not reverse any of its previous inventory write-offs in order to fatten gross margins. Perhaps their 10-K will eventually tell a different story on that, through the miracle of post-Arthur Andersen auditing; but if they did game these numbers the Street will crucify them because CSCO has been emphatic that they're not using those write-offs to pad their results now.