Watching CNBC today (NBC's Financial Cable TV channel) and heard something that most people wouldn't recognize as a potential Y2K problem. It seems Credit Suisse/First Boston warned on Applied Materials' (AMAT) 1st quarter earnings. It seems that the new IT system that AMAT installed didn't "ramp up smoothly" causing "production, odering, and manufacturing delays".

Now I wonder exactly *why* they totally ripped out their old system? Could it be........SATAN??? No, I'm willing to bet Y2K. These are the kinds of problems companies that went the replacement route are going to run into, especially if they started late and didn't take the time to get the system they implemented customized to meet their needs. Look for more news of this type in the financial news, because you won't see it on the nightly sound bite shows.

-- Prince Etrigan (princeetrigan@yahoo.com), January 04, 2000

Answers

Didn't they say something about the new system going online in the 4th quarter of '99? (I wasn't paying a lot of attention but I think I heard something to that effect.)

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), January 04, 2000.

I thought the way to spot a y2k glitch in the mainstream media was to listen for the disclaimer, "this was not related to Y2K in any way."

;-)

-- winter wondering (winterwondring@yahoo.com), January 04, 2000.

Amat did not issue an earnings warning. Nor is the stock down more than the overall market. I think you are lying.

-- Realist (don't@want.spam), January 04, 2000.

Sorry Realist, I heard this today too. It was CNBC.

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), January 04, 2000.

No, no, no, anything that Realist doesn't hear or see personally is a lie. Isn't that obvious? ;)

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), January 05, 2000.