SAN FRANCISCO (CNN/Money) - Some people never learn. Back in the late 1990s, I used to look on in amazement as new investors clamored for stock-split information, requesting it on their pagers. And I was baffled by the companies who used stock splits to make sure their stock prices were in line with competitors.

Stock splits, of course, have zero fundamental impact on value, since the share count goes up in exact proportion to the decline in share price. And the days of several split announcements per day are gone, with the bear market doing most of the splitting for us.

But people still love a good split. At an annual meeting with Wall Street analysts on Thursday, Applied Materials (AMAT: down $0.49 to $51.53, Research, Estimates) management had good news to report -- or at least a good forecast. "We believe the recovery is in progress," Executive Vice President David Wang said. But I suspect what really got investors goosed was news of a 2 for 1 stock split set for April 16.

Shares of Applied Materials, which closed Thursday at $52.02, shot up in after-hours trading on Thursday. And on Friday morning, they jumped as high as $53.40 in the first hour of trading. Cooler heads prevailed, and the stock ended the day down 1 percent, at $51.53. Come to think of it, maybe the trading losers in the opening hour did learn their lesson.

Tale of two Samsungs When I lived in Tokyo in the mid-1990s, I met a young executive with a Korean conglomerate who also was living in Tokyo. His sole business role was to soak up Japanese culture as a way of generating ideas for the folks back home. It seems the Koreans are still trying to figure out how to deal with the rest of the world. The question is whether or not it's working.

Witness two thoughtful articles out recently. In Friday's Wall Street Journal, "Korea's Samsung Seeks a Bit More Worldliness" details just how far the Korean powerhouse Samsung Electronics has to go in terms of dealing with the West. It has hired a British executive whose job is to help his Korean counterparts get along. His task? He's trying to get his colleagues to schmooze with customers and suppliers, and he also wants them to stop bringing 15-person entourages to run-of-the-mill sales meetings.

Conversely, a piece in the April 1 issue of Fortune details just how well Samsung Electronics is doing in its efforts to globalize. Examples: An ultra-cool ad campaign, the hiring of lots of English speakers, attracting an investor base that is 60 percent non-Korean.

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At issue for Samsung is whether it can be the next Sony. Perhaps the Korean giant shouldn't care. Its shares, traded in Korea, are up about 160 percent from their 52-week low and are approaching new highs. Sony's shares, traded on the Big Board, also are up from their lows, but are down about 40 percent from their 52-week highs.

Equal Opportunity It's amusing to note how CNBC is promoting its new weekly program, "WSJ Editorial Board," a program featuring a handful of the Wall Street Journal's biggest thinkers on the political world. "The talk show for people who prefer substance over shouting," screams the headline announcing the program, which airs Friday nights.

And the shows that prefer, er, shouting? Might that include reports from Maria Bartiromo and others from stock exchange floors? Or all of "Hardball with Chris Matthews?" Or, dare I say, "America Now," featuring my old pal James J. Cramer as co-host? All on CNBC, of course. Just asking.  

Send email to Adam at adam_lashinsky@timeinc.com.

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