Silke
06.03.2001, 11:52
Hallo Leute,
nachfolgend hab ich mal ein paar Daten inkl. eines Interviews mit der Finanzchefin von BBOX zusammengetragen. Mich würde mal Eure Meinung dazu interessieren. Ich finde die Company total interessant.
thx
MM
BBOX hat eine Marktkapitalisierung von nichtmal einer Mrd. ; genauer gesagt: 892 Mio. Dabei liegt ein KGV von gerade mal 14 zugrunde. Analystenratings: 5 Strongbuy und 2 buy. Überraschunb bei den Dez. Zahlen 120%. KEINE GEWINNWARNUNG (unbed. nachfolgendes Interview dazu lesen), Gegenüber dem Branchenvergleich der Netzwerke die ein PEG von -4,61 haben hat BBOX eines von 0,51!!!!!
[b]das Firmenporträit sogar auf GERMAN ;) [/img]
BLACK BOX Network Services - überragende Network Services weltweit.
Die BLACK BOX Deutschland GmbH ist seit 1994 100%ige Tochter der BLACK BOX Corporation (Pittsburgh, USA). Wir entwickeln, produzieren und vertreiben Hardwarekomponenten für Netzwerke, Daten- und Telekommunikation. Durch unseren TECH SUPPORT erhält der Kunde fachgerechte, qualifizierte und kostenlose technische Unterstützung am Telefon.
In Deutschland beschäftigt BLACK BOX 25 Mitarbeiter in den Bereichen Verkauf, Customer Service, TECH SUPPORT und Marketing und erzielte im Geschäftsjahr 1999 13 Mio. DM Umsatz.
BLACK BOX International
BLACK BOX ist eine international tätige Firma mit Hauptsitz in Pittsburgh, USA, und über 77 Niederlassungen und Händlern in der ganzen Welt. Während der letzten Jahre wuchs das Unternehmen jährlich mit zweistelligen Zuwachsraten auf über 500 Millionen Dollar Umsatz im Geschäftsjahr 1999/2000. BLACK BOX notiert auch an der Nasdaq (BBOX) mit einem Börsenkapital von 1.495B US Dollar.
Was Ihnen BLACK BOX bietet
BLACK BOX Katalog - Sie finden mehr als 10.000 Produkte auf über 1.200 Seiten in unserem zwei Mal jährlich erscheinenden Katalog, erweitert um Informationen und Erklärungen aus den technischen Fachbereichen. Der BLACK BOX Hauptkatalog - das Standardwerk der Datenkommunikation!
Kostenloser Technischer Support - fachkundige Spezialisten beantworten von Montag bis Freitag (zwischen 08.30 und 18.00 Uhr) gerne telefonisch Ihre Fragen.
Bestellung per Telefon - als unser Kunde bieten wir Ihnen bei Ihrer Bestellung kompetente Beratung und individuelle Angebote.
Verkabelungsservice - wir übernehmen die komplette Gebäudeverkabelung, Planung, Beratung und Implementierung von Netzwerk Infrastrukturen, Kabel Management, etc.
Spezialkabel - Kabel nach Mass sind unsere Spezialität. Designen Sie sich Ihr Kabel/Ihren Adapter nach Ihren Wünschen on-line..
Testmöglichkeit- bei uns können Sie alle BLACK BOX Produkte kostenlos in Ihrer Kundenapplikation vorab testen.
Black Box Tells Its Side of the Story
By Herb Greenberg
Senior Columnist
Originally posted at 10:00 AM ET 2/15/01 on RealMoney.com
Thursday thud:
From the "fair-and-equal treatment" department: Black Box's (BBOX:Nasdaq - news) stock tumbled 13% after being mentioned here Tuesday as a favorite of short-seller Marc Cohodes. At the time of publication, CFO Anna Baird hadn't returned my call. She says she wasn't dodging me, was just out of town and didn't retrieve my message from her voice mail until hours later. (Black Box closed at $54.13 on Wednesday, up $2.88, or 5.6%.
Related Stories
Ciena Tops Forecasts; Sees Faster Growth
With Cisco Stalking, Juniper Shows No Fear
Cable Design Technologies Expects to Meet Second-Quarter Estimates
Update: Lehman, With Poetry, Slashes Sycamore Networks Price Target
The Road Ahead: Networkers Confront a Mountain of Inventory
In two interviews Wednesday, she responded to Cohodes' comments:
Why does Black Box, a reseller of its own branded networking products and services, think it's immune to the slowdown that appears to be affecting everybody else in the industries it serves?
"We're maybe not affected as dramatically as the others because a lot of what we have is support and maintenance. We're the backbone that lets the system remain up and running. Even with a struggling economy or holdbacks on spending, people do realize they have to keep their businesses up and running."
What about all of those acquisitions: 62 in the past year and a half?
"Actually, that's 62 over a three-year period," she says. (Actually, the real number is 54 over two years; 62 over three years.) "We do roughly 20 a year, or two a month."
How can you maintain control on so many companies?
She says it's not a problem because the company uses the same controls it's had in place for 20 years. She adds that the companies are being merged into regional operations. "It's not like there are 62 existing operations." Black Box's objective, she says, "is to have a worldwide presence. We still feel there are holes in the U.S. Our objective is to have a 30% market share in each region. In some regions we have as high as a 75% market share; in others we have a 3% or 4% market share, so there's still plenty of room to increase our market share through mergers or the growth of existing operations."
How long will these acquisitions continue?
"We feel they could continue for another five years before reaching our objective."
Most of these businesses are just installation businesses -- businesses that install wire and networks. That's not a high-multiple business.
"There's a misconception that it's not a technical business," she says. "It's more than just people pulling cable."
How do you pay for the acquisitions? Cash and stock?
"Mostly stock."
Then, why has Black Box's long-term debt grown to $143 million from $105 million in the past year?
"It's mostly related to the purchase of our own stock. We've repurchased 2.2 million shares. We're borrowing to purchase stock."
Why not buy the stock out of your free-cash flow?
"We're using that to repay the debt" and pay interest on the debt.
Receivables have also been rising, why?
"Because we're doing all these mergers and we're combining the balance sheets."
What are the true days outstanding?
"It's difficult just looking at the balance sheet," she says.
So, how can an investor figure out what the company really looks like?
"The company does a quarterly earnings release, along with a conference call. Obviously we entertain questions and we're willing to speak with shareholders."
What's the company's real organic, internal growth rate?
"Last quarter the on-site [pulling cables] growth rate was 25%." (That includes revenues of acquired companies as if they had been acquired for a year. The company's existing phone services business, which is not affected by acquisitions, grew at 16%. Baird also didn't dispute my analysis that nonacquisition-related earnings-per-share growth was around 8%.)
But Cohodes and other shorts say it's virtually impossible to tell what the real growth rate is because the company doesn't provide enough detail. Investors in Black Box, meanwhile, think the shorts will be proved wrong. Michael Halpern of Dorchester Advisors, in Los Angeles, a 10-year investor in Black Box, says he's impressed with its free-cash flow, return-on-equity and earnings-per-share growth. He believes the stock is undervalued at its current levels. "Financially speaking," he says, "this is an exemplary company."
That's assuming, Cohodes says, you can rely on its numbers. "I don't like companies telling me what they're growing at; I like to figure it out for myself," he says.
He'd like to see the company take the unusual step of turning over all of its info to an independent third party, such as an accounting professor, for an independent analysis. If such an analysis shows that the company's organic, internal growth really is what the company says it is, he says, "I'll go to Pittsburgh, wear a dress and serve them lunch."
Baird, meanwhile, says she's troubled by some of Cohodes' statements. "It's important to understand the story, and we're going to tell that story."
Ancor's away: Why did QLogic (QLGC:Nasdaq - news) buy Ancor Communications? Why ask that question more than six months after the deal was done? Because whenever I raise questions about QLogic, and whether it will get the bang for its buck from its $1.3 billion takeover of Ancor, a maker of fiber channel switches, I'm told that the deal wasn't done for earnings, it was done for "the technology, stupid."
That's what QLogic's fans say; that's what QLogic has been saying at conferences. To which I say, "Oh yeah?" That's not what QLogic said in the press release touting the deal, back on May 8. What the company did say was that it expected the deal to be "slightly accretive to earnings for the calendar year ending December 2001, and accretive to QLogic's fiscal year ending March 2002."
The press release went on to say that QLogic is getting Ancor's "extensive portfolio of products" and that "the two companies are expected to leverage key customer relationships to produce synergistic Fiber Channel solutions for the rapidly growing SAN [storage area network] marketplace."
Like Sun (SUNW:Nasdaq - news), right? Well, what happens when Sun, Ancor's big fiber switch customer to date, lets customers choose which fiber switch to use? What happens if they don't choose QLogic's Ancor switch? How will that affect the ol' accretion? I'd ask the company, but I'm still waiting for the CFO to return my last two calls!
nachfolgend hab ich mal ein paar Daten inkl. eines Interviews mit der Finanzchefin von BBOX zusammengetragen. Mich würde mal Eure Meinung dazu interessieren. Ich finde die Company total interessant.
thx
MM
BBOX hat eine Marktkapitalisierung von nichtmal einer Mrd. ; genauer gesagt: 892 Mio. Dabei liegt ein KGV von gerade mal 14 zugrunde. Analystenratings: 5 Strongbuy und 2 buy. Überraschunb bei den Dez. Zahlen 120%. KEINE GEWINNWARNUNG (unbed. nachfolgendes Interview dazu lesen), Gegenüber dem Branchenvergleich der Netzwerke die ein PEG von -4,61 haben hat BBOX eines von 0,51!!!!!
[b]das Firmenporträit sogar auf GERMAN ;) [/img]
BLACK BOX Network Services - überragende Network Services weltweit.
Die BLACK BOX Deutschland GmbH ist seit 1994 100%ige Tochter der BLACK BOX Corporation (Pittsburgh, USA). Wir entwickeln, produzieren und vertreiben Hardwarekomponenten für Netzwerke, Daten- und Telekommunikation. Durch unseren TECH SUPPORT erhält der Kunde fachgerechte, qualifizierte und kostenlose technische Unterstützung am Telefon.
In Deutschland beschäftigt BLACK BOX 25 Mitarbeiter in den Bereichen Verkauf, Customer Service, TECH SUPPORT und Marketing und erzielte im Geschäftsjahr 1999 13 Mio. DM Umsatz.
BLACK BOX International
BLACK BOX ist eine international tätige Firma mit Hauptsitz in Pittsburgh, USA, und über 77 Niederlassungen und Händlern in der ganzen Welt. Während der letzten Jahre wuchs das Unternehmen jährlich mit zweistelligen Zuwachsraten auf über 500 Millionen Dollar Umsatz im Geschäftsjahr 1999/2000. BLACK BOX notiert auch an der Nasdaq (BBOX) mit einem Börsenkapital von 1.495B US Dollar.
Was Ihnen BLACK BOX bietet
BLACK BOX Katalog - Sie finden mehr als 10.000 Produkte auf über 1.200 Seiten in unserem zwei Mal jährlich erscheinenden Katalog, erweitert um Informationen und Erklärungen aus den technischen Fachbereichen. Der BLACK BOX Hauptkatalog - das Standardwerk der Datenkommunikation!
Kostenloser Technischer Support - fachkundige Spezialisten beantworten von Montag bis Freitag (zwischen 08.30 und 18.00 Uhr) gerne telefonisch Ihre Fragen.
Bestellung per Telefon - als unser Kunde bieten wir Ihnen bei Ihrer Bestellung kompetente Beratung und individuelle Angebote.
Verkabelungsservice - wir übernehmen die komplette Gebäudeverkabelung, Planung, Beratung und Implementierung von Netzwerk Infrastrukturen, Kabel Management, etc.
Spezialkabel - Kabel nach Mass sind unsere Spezialität. Designen Sie sich Ihr Kabel/Ihren Adapter nach Ihren Wünschen on-line..
Testmöglichkeit- bei uns können Sie alle BLACK BOX Produkte kostenlos in Ihrer Kundenapplikation vorab testen.
Black Box Tells Its Side of the Story
By Herb Greenberg
Senior Columnist
Originally posted at 10:00 AM ET 2/15/01 on RealMoney.com
Thursday thud:
From the "fair-and-equal treatment" department: Black Box's (BBOX:Nasdaq - news) stock tumbled 13% after being mentioned here Tuesday as a favorite of short-seller Marc Cohodes. At the time of publication, CFO Anna Baird hadn't returned my call. She says she wasn't dodging me, was just out of town and didn't retrieve my message from her voice mail until hours later. (Black Box closed at $54.13 on Wednesday, up $2.88, or 5.6%.
Related Stories
Ciena Tops Forecasts; Sees Faster Growth
With Cisco Stalking, Juniper Shows No Fear
Cable Design Technologies Expects to Meet Second-Quarter Estimates
Update: Lehman, With Poetry, Slashes Sycamore Networks Price Target
The Road Ahead: Networkers Confront a Mountain of Inventory
In two interviews Wednesday, she responded to Cohodes' comments:
Why does Black Box, a reseller of its own branded networking products and services, think it's immune to the slowdown that appears to be affecting everybody else in the industries it serves?
"We're maybe not affected as dramatically as the others because a lot of what we have is support and maintenance. We're the backbone that lets the system remain up and running. Even with a struggling economy or holdbacks on spending, people do realize they have to keep their businesses up and running."
What about all of those acquisitions: 62 in the past year and a half?
"Actually, that's 62 over a three-year period," she says. (Actually, the real number is 54 over two years; 62 over three years.) "We do roughly 20 a year, or two a month."
How can you maintain control on so many companies?
She says it's not a problem because the company uses the same controls it's had in place for 20 years. She adds that the companies are being merged into regional operations. "It's not like there are 62 existing operations." Black Box's objective, she says, "is to have a worldwide presence. We still feel there are holes in the U.S. Our objective is to have a 30% market share in each region. In some regions we have as high as a 75% market share; in others we have a 3% or 4% market share, so there's still plenty of room to increase our market share through mergers or the growth of existing operations."
How long will these acquisitions continue?
"We feel they could continue for another five years before reaching our objective."
Most of these businesses are just installation businesses -- businesses that install wire and networks. That's not a high-multiple business.
"There's a misconception that it's not a technical business," she says. "It's more than just people pulling cable."
How do you pay for the acquisitions? Cash and stock?
"Mostly stock."
Then, why has Black Box's long-term debt grown to $143 million from $105 million in the past year?
"It's mostly related to the purchase of our own stock. We've repurchased 2.2 million shares. We're borrowing to purchase stock."
Why not buy the stock out of your free-cash flow?
"We're using that to repay the debt" and pay interest on the debt.
Receivables have also been rising, why?
"Because we're doing all these mergers and we're combining the balance sheets."
What are the true days outstanding?
"It's difficult just looking at the balance sheet," she says.
So, how can an investor figure out what the company really looks like?
"The company does a quarterly earnings release, along with a conference call. Obviously we entertain questions and we're willing to speak with shareholders."
What's the company's real organic, internal growth rate?
"Last quarter the on-site [pulling cables] growth rate was 25%." (That includes revenues of acquired companies as if they had been acquired for a year. The company's existing phone services business, which is not affected by acquisitions, grew at 16%. Baird also didn't dispute my analysis that nonacquisition-related earnings-per-share growth was around 8%.)
But Cohodes and other shorts say it's virtually impossible to tell what the real growth rate is because the company doesn't provide enough detail. Investors in Black Box, meanwhile, think the shorts will be proved wrong. Michael Halpern of Dorchester Advisors, in Los Angeles, a 10-year investor in Black Box, says he's impressed with its free-cash flow, return-on-equity and earnings-per-share growth. He believes the stock is undervalued at its current levels. "Financially speaking," he says, "this is an exemplary company."
That's assuming, Cohodes says, you can rely on its numbers. "I don't like companies telling me what they're growing at; I like to figure it out for myself," he says.
He'd like to see the company take the unusual step of turning over all of its info to an independent third party, such as an accounting professor, for an independent analysis. If such an analysis shows that the company's organic, internal growth really is what the company says it is, he says, "I'll go to Pittsburgh, wear a dress and serve them lunch."
Baird, meanwhile, says she's troubled by some of Cohodes' statements. "It's important to understand the story, and we're going to tell that story."
Ancor's away: Why did QLogic (QLGC:Nasdaq - news) buy Ancor Communications? Why ask that question more than six months after the deal was done? Because whenever I raise questions about QLogic, and whether it will get the bang for its buck from its $1.3 billion takeover of Ancor, a maker of fiber channel switches, I'm told that the deal wasn't done for earnings, it was done for "the technology, stupid."
That's what QLogic's fans say; that's what QLogic has been saying at conferences. To which I say, "Oh yeah?" That's not what QLogic said in the press release touting the deal, back on May 8. What the company did say was that it expected the deal to be "slightly accretive to earnings for the calendar year ending December 2001, and accretive to QLogic's fiscal year ending March 2002."
The press release went on to say that QLogic is getting Ancor's "extensive portfolio of products" and that "the two companies are expected to leverage key customer relationships to produce synergistic Fiber Channel solutions for the rapidly growing SAN [storage area network] marketplace."
Like Sun (SUNW:Nasdaq - news), right? Well, what happens when Sun, Ancor's big fiber switch customer to date, lets customers choose which fiber switch to use? What happens if they don't choose QLogic's Ancor switch? How will that affect the ol' accretion? I'd ask the company, but I'm still waiting for the CFO to return my last two calls!