Steve,
BORL did get hammered this am (down to 7 3/8 at one point) and the president, Wetzel, was pushed out the door, although I think his efforts to focus the company were not wrong. The company lost 0.56 cents this quarter, much worse than expected. The stock now is very interesting in my view. It will be either a hero or a zero. BORL has a lot of positives going for it;namely, a suite of excellent development products ( I use Visual Dbase myself),a new entry into the internet development race in Latte, Pdox(32 bit),Delphi, of course, etc.
HOWEVER, this turmoil at the company will have the effect of making many developers fall back on Visual Basic ( it has made me do it)because clients will question the staying power of BORL and so they will not buy the products which will have the effect of slowing sales which will bring more red ink, etc. etc.
I have owned this stock as recently a month or so ago and many times before as it is an excellent trading vehicle. but I would be cautious now. I think there could be a low ball offer for the company lurking around the corner. After all, 10 bucks doesn't look so bad now! The company might take it self private. The company might continue to eat its children as it did with Quatrro Pro. Frankly, prospects don,t look so hot regardless of the quality of its products. My best guess is some sort of takeout, but by whom I don't have a clue. NOVL is no longer in the picture nor is IBM. ORCL maybe? Sybase ? I don't think BORL is going to make it on its own.
Regards,
Bob Everett |
