lt cap,

Damn Goldman. I was waiting for INFN to sink to my sale price ~$8.50. Ah well, maybe they'll repeat the disastrous earnings call that sank the ship earlier. Probably not - there is a limit to getting beaten down, sometimes. And double damn Goldman for cutting CIEN with no reason cited. Maybe their equipment was involved in spying on Trump through his microwave oven. With the complicity of Hilary and Obama. And the time machine the CIA built for them. From plans that were stolen from the Russians.

The good news is NOK keeps marching steadily north. I'm hoping their CCs might just bolster the conviction that better days are coming.

And VG? I hadn't watched in a while (I'm sure Jester has, though) - ATVI at 49? EA at 90? TTWO at $59? (Did TTWO stop lining their pockets and abusing shareholders?) Or did I miss something that supports these valuations? Or it could just be the general market inflation I guess. This question is for Jester - the govt. economists are predicting 4.1% growth. The highest prediction in many, many years. How much shrinkage do you think there will be when we reach the specified time frame.? You've called it pretty much right all along.

 OT - You all know I hate Microsoft. Here's more continuation of their 'indentured servant user' model - Refusing to let newer processors receive any up dates to Windows 7 (which runs on 47% of machines in use) and Windows 8 (which has 8%). The first and only time people waited in line to buy their new operating system? Windows 98. Gotta find some way of shoving newer crapware down users' throats.

tomshardware.com/ne...0.html

Some bits and pieces on Goldman's upgrade of INFN:

Shares of beleaguered fiber-optic networking equipment vendor Infinera (INFN) are up $1.05, or 10%, at $11.40, after Goldman Sachs's Doug Clark this morning raised the shares to Buy from Neutral, arguing that it's now a better bet than those of competitor Ciena (CIEN), whose shares he cut to Neutral from Buy. 
There's a "product cycle story" for Infinera, writes Clark, that's going to "re-acclerate" its revenue over the next two years he argues. 

Clark predicts revenue for Infinera will "bottom" this quarter, and start to turn around in the second half of the year. That's assuming M&A in the telecom world becomes less of an overhang to telco spending. 

The product story, as Clark sees it, starts with the shipments in Q2 of something called "Cloud Xpress 2," a "data center interconnect platform." 

Then later that quarter comes the "XT-3300," which is a "long-haul version of the CX platform," built on the fourth generation Photonic Integrated Circuit," or PIC, the underlying component that powers Infinera's gear. 

Then in Q3 come updates to Infinera's "metro" products, the "TM series." 

Next year comes the "fifth generation" of the company's PIC, notes Clark. The arrival of that technology will cut by more than half the span of time between PIC updates, he notes, "which could help it maintain a more competitive position within the industry." 

INFN now appears to have mastered the PIC science, it can now bring future generations of PICs in half the time as it used to.  This is an enormous advantage, it used to be that the competition would bring new technology (using discrete components or less integrated ones) some 12 months prior to INFN having its equivalent PIC.

This will give INFN a high competitive advantage and also keep margins high, while being price competitive.  The fiasco of last year should be a much diminished possibility in the future.  It should also make it a very attractive take over candidate.