The introduction of Microsoft Corp's Windows XP software brought out celebrities including Sting, Regis Philbin and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Top analysts covering the company have kept a lower profile.
Goldman, Sachs & Co's Rick Sherlund, who has covered Microsoft since his firm underwrote the company's initial stock sale in 1986, hasn't published a word since XP was introduced.
Neither has UBS Warburg's Don Young or Lehman Brothers Inc's Michael Stanek.
"This is not something anyone's in a position to make a big call on yet," said Marc Klee, who owns Microsoft shares in the US$800 million John Hancock Technology Fund. The analysts from a half dozen firms who did weigh in on Friday "are not the big axes" and don't move the stock, he said.
The party for the new version of the Windows operating system brought together Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Intel Corp's Craig Barrett, the heads of four of the largest personal-computer makers, Giuliani and Philbin, the game and talk-show host, in a Times Square theater. A concert by Sting followed in a nearby park.
Star-studded or not, XP's kickoff "doesn't need a lot of analysis," said John Faig, who follows software makers for American Express Financial Advisors in Minneapolis. It shed no light on how quickly corporations will adopt the new operating system, which is supposed to be more stable and handle sound, video and pictures more smoothly than previous versions of Windows.
Faig said he didn't find anything important in the research notes that were published on Microsoft Friday. "That underscores that this is not as big a deal" for Microsoft as previous Windows releases have been, he said. The AXP Growth Fund held 4.4 million Microsoft shares as of July.
"The most important thing you can do as an analyst is say something new, something nobody else is saying," said Michael Kwatinetz, who was the No. 2 personal-computer software analyst in Institutional Investor magazine, after Sherlund, when he left Credit Suisse First Boston early last year.
Examining, for example, whether Microsoft will be able to command higher royalties from computer makers for the new product would be worthwhile, he said.
Asked if he would have put out a note today if he didn't have some new piece of analysis, Kwatinetz said: "It's not a question I can answer because I believe I would have had something."
Kwatinetz said that some analysts feel the need to publish following every corporate announcement, particularly profit reports, even when they can only repeat what the company said.
"Everyone feels compelled to put out a note," said Kwatinetz, who is now with Azure Capital Partners in Oakland, California, and attended yesterday's announcement.
John McPeake of Prudential Securities Inc, said Microsoft broke news on Thursday that others missed. Gates said that 30 million personal computers have already been manufactured with Windows XP installed, and 5 million of these are in stores, McPeake said. This is a new indication that Microsoft will be able to make its revenue goals in the fiscal second quarter, which ends in December, McPeake said.
"I find it amazing that other analysts didn't highlight this," said McPeake, who kept his "buy" rating on Microsoft.
Analysts who weighed in on Microsoft's release are a less decorated crowd. James Moore of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, for example, and Sarah Mattson of Dain Rauscher Wessels, aren't rated by Institutional Investor. McPeake, a former software developer, has been covering Microsoft for less than a year.
Wendell Laidley of Credit Suisse First Boston, who was a runner-up in 1999 in the magazine's corporate software category, published a 10-page note on Friday that began with information from yesterday's event and then said that checks with sources not at the company showed "relatively soft" demand.
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