Fool Portfolio Report
Monday, June 10, 1996
Monday, June 10, 1996
(FOOL GLOBAL
WIRE)
by David
Gardner
ALEXANDRIA, VA, June 10, 1996 -- June 10th of 1996 will go down as one of the better days in Fooldom. A long-awaited announcement of two new IBM Aptiva computers featuring an internal Zip drive came out this morning, and the stock rose $5 3/4 as a consequence. The market continues to learn about this company's present and future, and the more we learn, the more money IOMG shareholders make. And the more the world learns about the online medium.
It's hard not to be "in your face" emotional about this, since so many humiliated elements of the fading old media have centered their attack on the new medium by using Iomega... Iomega being all just a bunch of hype, of course, just Internet hype, no business, no real prospects, just a whole bunch of idiotic individual investors who are creating hysteria by talking about the stock online.
That story worked for a while, since this medium was still in its infancy, many of us working on it couldn't adequately "defend" ourselves from larger-circulation silliness, and Iomega---despite a great new product and great management---was just a $140 million company with sales of old products mainly to the government. It was a secret, still, really. Actually, it was a secret that the audience of the fading old media never got to hear, but one that OUR readers fully understood a year ago, with the stock at $4. The non-Foolish audience didn't get to hear it because the newspapers and the TV misled their viewers by (a) writing incorrectly about something they never understood in the first place, and then (b) making it the subject of a media war, causing it to become something eventually that we AND them would be judged by. . . as if Iomega was more about online vs. offline than about Zip drives!
Hey, that's just fine with us. We love judgment; accountability is our favorite dish, and always has been. You see, the truth will always out, and history will demonstrate the truth of the Foolish viewpoint, and the inanity of those who opposed it. Like IBM's announcement today, every additional story that comes out further discredits the gray old men (incorrigible and sickened bears anyway, most of them) who speak in their increasingly raspy tones about "Iomega Internet hype." Iomega, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Packard Bell, and The Motley Fool will just continue on changing the world for the better, working to serve people, not mislead them. It goes back to our roots: The Fool has told the truth to the King. . . the King here being the fading old media. We're sorry that this particular King was so unwilling to listen, wishing instead to banish his Fool from the kingdom. We're glad that the King's court could listen, and did, and decided to LEAVE the kingdom too, with their Fool.
As we depart, let us cast a sympathetic eye at the doddering, solitary old man, still maundering in a gloomy corner by himself about bear markets, and "Internet" (a word he never really understood anyway), and the damned ignorant individuals out there who SHOULD have needed to listen to the King's pronouncements, but have found each other more desirable and reliable sources. Time for a touch of T.S. Eliot, perhaps? From "Gerontion," quite apropos as a whole, but for brevity's sake we'll just go with:
"I have lost my sight, my smell, hearing, taste and touch:
How should I use them for your closer contact?"
For the "I," substitute your favorite voices from the ranks of the Wise.
Back to Iomega. With the usual emphasis on Foolish accountability, MF Cheeze thoughtfully reminded us of a quote from Stan Corker in Investor's Business Daily, from March 6th. Corker, a data storage analyst at International Data Corp, said he was optimistic that one of these two drives [Iomega's or Compaq's] will someday replace the floppy drive used in computers today." Going on, he stated, "I believe the first to get three of the top 10 PC makers will be the winner. It's a battle that will take place this year."
As MF Cheeze added in our IOMG folder today, "The battle is over before 3M/Compaq got its planes in the air."
More details will be forthcoming in our message folders, if you can avoid the blinding glare of stock quotations posted from a couple of people every few minutes. Yikes. We're long-term investors, my fellow Fools. . . let's not call intra-day dips and swings, please? It makes for "folder dreck."
Fortunately, we have a new service entitled "IOMG in Fooldom Today" which you can sign up for free, for a limited time, which culls the best posts from that folder and sends them to you by e-mail every day. Great stuff. Send e-mail to [email protected] if you're interested.
Nothing else much happened with the Fool Port or the market today.
Final note: Hey, check out the wonderful new article in Time Magazine this week about The Fool, and particularly MF MOM! Great stuff. It reminds me to close by mentioning what really positive and wonderful coverage Fools and this medium have received from OUTSIDE the financial press. (The irony is that general interest magazines and computer magazines have always understood Iomega better than all the financial ones put together!) We really appreciate the excellent, hard work put into that article by Jonathan Abbey. And ongoing kudos to our remote staff---all MFs everywhere---who on a daily basis inform, educate, answer all manner of questions, and do so with graciousness and a sense of humor. Thank you tonight, MF MOM. Fool on!
---David Gardner, June 10, 1996
Transmitted: 6/10/96
Day Month Year HistoryFOOL +6.83% -2.74% 96.38% 266.70%
S&P 500 -0.17% 0.45% 9.13% 46.63%
NASDAQ +0.02% -1.08% 16.91% 70.80%
*Scroll down or expand screen for full portfolio accounting
AMER + 1/4 ...CHV ---...GE ---...GPS + 1/8 ...IOMG +5 3/4 ... KLAC - 3/4 ...MDRX - 1/4 ...S + 3/4 ...
Rec'd # Security In At Now Change
5/17/95 2010 Iomega Cor 2.52 43.75 1636.82%
8/5/94 680 AmOnline 7.27 49.00 573.74%
4/20/95 310 The Gap 16.28 34.50 111.98%
8/5/94 165 Sears 28.93 53.00 83.23%
8/11/95 95 GenElec 57.91 86.00 48.49%
1/29/96 250 Medicis Ph 27.86 33.75 21.14%
8/11/95 110 Chevron 49.00 59.00 20.41%
8/24/95 130 KLA Instrm 44.71 24.00 -46.32%
Rec'd # Security Cost Value Change
5/17/95 2010 Iomega Cor 5063.13 87937.50 $82874.37
8/5/94 680 AmOnline 4945.56 33320.00 $28374.44
4/20/95 310 The Gap 5045.25 10695.00 $5649.75
8/5/94 165 Sears 4772.65 8745.00 $3972.35
8/11/95 95 GenElec 5501.87 8170.00 $2668.13
1/29/96 250 Medicis Ph 6964.99 8437.50 $1472.51
8/11/95 110 Chevron 5389.99 6490.00 $1100.01
8/24/95 130 KLA Instrm 5812.49 3120.00 -$2692.49
CASH $16434.53
TOTAL $183349.53
