FOOL ON THE HILL An Investment Opinion
Nobody's Buying Mobile Phones?
By Bill Mann (TMF Otter)

All of the sudden the mobile phone companies are trying to outdo each other with negative projections for next year's growth. Texas Instruments and Motorola have each lowered their projections for the market for both this year and next year. Nokia warned for the third quarter due to a poor porduct mix. Ericsson continues to fade. But there are some new players here, rapidly taking market share. These include Alcatel, Siemens, Sony, and Kyocera. What is the real story?
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Beyond the EMC Numbers
By Mike Trigg (TMF Tonto)

EMC announced third-quarter earnings this morning, citing growth across CEO Mike Ruettgers' five key areas. Taking a quick look at those areas, the company is well-positioned to make further strides in the storage space. However, disappointing software sales were a chink in the EMC announcement. The company insists the component shortage that limited high-end sales has been solved.
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DRIP PORTFOLIO A QuickNews Extra
Buying More Intel
By Jeff Fischer (TMF Jeff)

Intel's 52% year-over-year earnings growth didn't seem shabby to us. Despite the possibility of a relatively slow 2001, we'll be buying more shares in the mid-$30s. Intel wants to be an integral chip provider in a network-centric society, and we believe that it has the means to do so better than any competitor. Also, check out a special offer at the end of the column.
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REITs: The Other White Meat
By Todd Lebor

Looking through the flotsam and jetsam of your portfolio? Need a stock to hang onto? Real estate investment trusts (REITs) may provide just the stability you're looking for. Oh, and did I mention they are up 20% for the year? Take a look.
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Michaels Gets Dunked
By Dave Marino-Nachison (TMF Braden)

Arts-and-crafts retailer Michaels counts heavily on holiday shoppers to drive earnings growth, so investors used to little but good news from the company reacted strongly to today's second-half warning.
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Copper Mountain Strikes Lead
By Bill Mann (TMF Otter) and Chris Rugaber (TMF RFK)

Copper Mountain announced that its earnings next year would be lower by a factor of five due to financial struggles of its largest customers, several of which are Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs). The CLEC industry has lost its access to easy debt and equity capital and is cutting back spending for its buildouts as a result. Is this an ominous situation for all broadband equipment manufacturers? Several have been hit, and several others seem to be immune. But a company cannot continue to grow if its customers curb their purchases.
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Mercury Interactive Tests Well
By Jeff Fischer (TMF Jeff)

Website testing and monitoring software provider Mercury Interactive, reported third-quarter earnings of $0.18 per share, up 100%, as revenue rose 67% to $79.5 million. The company is building a lead in its niche, which for software providers means a premium price.
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FOOL PLATE SPECIAL An Investment Opinion
RealNetworks' Q3 Adds Up, With Ads Down
By Nico Detourn (TMF Nico)

The streaming media leader met earnings expectations Tuesday but, like its peers, cautioned about the online ad market. Ad contracts have been renegotiated at lower rates, while ad revenues nearly doubled as a percentage of the total. While the company is bullish on its new subscription service, the model is unproven in a world where content streams for free.
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BREAKFAST WITH THE FOOL
Copper Mountain Gets Halved
By LouAnn Lofton (TMF Lou2)

Digital subscriber line (DSL) solutions provider Copper Mountain Networks announced third-quarter results yesterday after the bell. The company also provided some guidance for its fourth quarter and for its next fiscal year.
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Today's Market Movers

We've got brand new pages set up just chock full of information for investors interested in learning more about the Computer Hardware and Biotech sectors. Check 'em out!

Ups

Online customer relationship management (CRM) software company PeopleSoft (Nasdaq: PSFT) jumped $8.44 to $41.19 today after the company said Q3 EPS was $0.23, well above Wall Street's $0.07 consensus estimate and last year's breakeven quarter. Revenue rose 16% to $420 million as software license sales more than doubled.

Chip maker Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX) rose $2.13 to $66.63 today. The company said second-quarter revenues grew 83% to $437.4 million, from $238.8 million in its second quarter last year. Net income was $114.1 million, compared to $59.2 million a year ago. Earnings per share beat the consensus estimate by two cents, coming in at $0.32, versus $0.17 last year.

Digital assistant maker Handspring (Nasdaq: HAND) moved up $13.69 to $91.56 after reporting fiscal first-quarter results yesterday afternoon. The company's loss was narrower than expected. Excluding some deferred stock compensation costs, Handspring lost $8 million, or $0.08 a share. Analysts polled by First Call/Thompson Financial expected it to lose $0.12 a share. Including those costs, the company lost $0.17 a share, or $16.4 million. Handspring's revenues for the quarter were $70.5 million.

Network performance analysis systems company Ixia (Nasdaq: XXIA) jumped $7.50 to $20.50 in its first day of trading. The company sold 5.5 million shares to the public for $13 each, above the $10 to $12 range originally expected. The shares opened just above $20 apiece.

Downs

RF Micro Devices (Nasdaq: RFMD), the wireless communications amplifying chip maker, dropped $8.75 to $14.25 as the company announced its second-quarter earnings and discussed third-quarter expectations. For its Q2, the company met estimates with $0.10 a share. The company said it was lowering expectations for the third quarter because of low demand for its products, as well as product delays. It expects earnings per share to be between $0.04 and $0.05 a share. Analysts were looking for $0.11 a share.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) fell $17.56 to $95.44 as the company said Q3 sales grew by 3% to $21.8 billion. This wasn't enough to satisfy analysts, who were looking for $22.4 billion. Net income for the quarter rose to $2 billion, from $1.7 billion in the same quarter last year. Earnings per share were $1.08, versus $0.90 a share last year. This EPS number met the consensus estimate as reported by First Call/Thompson Financial. IBM blamed at least some of the weak revenue growth on an anemic euro. The company claimed its sales would have risen 6% without those negative currency effects.

Competitive DSL provider Covad Communications (Nasdaq: COVD) slipped $5.03 to $3.56 today. Q3 revenues were $66.7 million, compared to revenues in the year-ago period of $19.1 million. Covad's net loss was $189.9 million, versus a loss of $54.1 million the year before. The company's net loss of $1.22 per share was greater than the consensus estimate of $1.18 per share. In Covad's third quarter last year, it lost $0.47 a share. CEO Robert Knowling pointed accusingly at clients: "Due to the weakness in the capital markets," he said in a statement, "nine of our channel partners have experienced financing difficulties and have slipped in their ability to stay current with their accounts receivable."

Cable Internet access equipment maker Terayon Communication Systems (Nasdaq: TERN) dropped $21.13 to $19.88 today as CEO Zaki Rakib reportedly said on a conference call that revenue growth is likely to slow and results could be further hurt by component costs and expense-related acquisitions. The company yesterday said Q3 pro forma net income was $0.12, three cents ahead of Street estimates.

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