Business Week Recalls Delphi And Visteon Prognostications

Business Week writer Robert Barker comments on his previous articles concerning Delphi and other predictions.

"Delphi Automotive Systems. One day, this spun-off General Motors parts maker will be a terrific stock. It has proved to be just the opposite since I pointed out its potential at $20 a share in June, 1999, [charts] and compounded the error a year later when I favored it over Visteon, Ford Motor's spun-off parts maker. Visteon shares now idle near $14, about where they started; at $13, Delphi's seem to be stuck in reverse.

Delphi has progressed on many fronts, notably by reducing its dependence on sales to former parent GM, which dropped to 68% of total revenue in 2001, from 78% in 1998. Its electronics have even made their way into the hyper-hyped Segway scooter. Yet Wall Street is impatient with Delphi's inability to generate much in the way of cash flow that is free of costs from a restructuring that seems only to go on and on.