Gateway implied fairly strongly at the analyst meeting that HP is a much weaker operator than they are, and that's possible,

It contradicts it fairly strongly.

Production should be up, and it should be up fairly strongly,

Being a 911 operator means balancing seemingly contradictory skills. On one hand, operators have to be fanatically precise and well-organized. On the other, they must be able to establish rapport with panicky callers.

Given the fact that not one analyst currently has a 'buy' rating on Gateway stock, I think Mr. Inouye leaving Gateway is good news for shareholders. The company has successfully cut costs, but now it's time for them to focus on increasing shareholder value.

If the company said it was a one-quarter event, then I think the downside would have been limited, ... But given the guidance we received, which is that growth is likely to slow because the company is so large, that will ratchet down the numbers for fiscal 2001, and that's probably where the damage is going to come from.