The financial number crunchers at the Juniper analyst event in the Bay Area last month weren't just differentiated by the color of their name tags. After an overview of last year's results and outlook for 2009 by Juniper CFO, the Wall Street analysts were unrelentless in their pursuit a specific figure for opex reduction.
CFO Robyn Denholm stated numerous times that if revenue is flat to down, then opex would be flat to down, without giving a forecast beyond Q1, given the 'challenging economic climate and reduced visibility'. But that didn't stop six financial analysts, one after another, from asking, albeit in increasingly creative ways, how much did they plan to cut opex.
From the high-5s exchanged between many of the financial clique, it seems just poising the question was a sort of victory. In these times, you celebrate what you can.