Technology News and Sector Reports

By Jim Cole, Investing Across Borders
May, 2001

When Palm Inc. announced it would miss fiscal fourth quarter earnings and revenue projections by an arm and a leg because of a slowing economy and a product transition, it was time for astute, long-term investors to walk – no, stampede -- away from today’s leader in the handheld device market.

Palm’s own gloomy outlook merely reinforced the story of trouble that was already unfolding in Europe, where its market dominance is withering rapidly against Microsoft’s Pocket PC operating system.

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By Ronna Abramson, Investing Across Borders
For The Industry Standard

Faced with more pressure to rein in costs, executives at NextCard were alarmed last summer to see their company ranked as the second-biggest advertiser on the Net.

NextCard's online advertising rang in at $25.8 million in August, trailing only behemoth America Online, according to AdZone Interactive, the youngest of a handful of firms that measure Internet advertising.

However, NextCard's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that the online consumer credit company spent only $7.9 million on marketing, advertising and branding during the third quarter from July to September, meaning that New York-based AdZone had overstated NextCard's spending by at least 200 percent.

Although companies have long complained about inaccurate Internet metrics, online advertising has become a particularly tricky beast to track.

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By Eric Uhlfelder, Investing Across Borders
For the Financial Times

While no high-technology company has escaped the damage of the past year, it is a mistake to think that all industry leaders have been hit the same.

While shares of Cisco Systems, the world's top data networking group, are down nearly 80 per cent over the past year, shares of Intel, the largest microchip manufacturer, have lost only 50 per cent.

Further, it appears that the bellwether companies that have been worst-hit are still quite expensive. Cisco shares are now trading at a forward price/earnings ratio of 72.6 for calendar year 2002. And yet shares of the leading server manufacturer, Sun Microsystems, are trading at a forward multiple of 28, while shares of the largest wireless handset maker, Nokia, are trading at 17.

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