As voiced on this thread before, I look at the announcement in a different light than you. I personally am happy to see a management team that delivers on its promise. Mr. Bramson did not exactly "promise", but wanted to see a deal done before the end of the year (as stated in the filings with SEC) and delivered on it. The way I see this deal is that - Maxtor, knowing that Ampex wanted a deal before the end of the year, tried to get a deal that is a "little too sweet". In a compramise Maxtor agreed to no minimum purchases and Ampex got a better deal. But remember that Ampex is pretty confident about Keepering and in the long run it does not loose anything by a "no minimum purchase agreement", if the technology is good, then they will use it anyway. Now the point that Ampex signed a deal with Maxtor and not one of the big three - I am actually happy that it is Maxtor and not one of the big guys. Knowing that the first signee gets a better deal, I would have been disappointed if it were, say a "Seagate", you would want as good a deal from the big three as possible. The reason for not disclosing the terms of the deal is probably to get as much as possible from the others. The reason that the big guys have not signed on yet may be that they are evaluating the yields with MR and would wait until they have that data.
Having said that, I am a little worried about the stock action, some times the street is late to react, but some times they see something we are not yet seeing, hope the later is not the case here. But like Mary Beth said even Iomega did not take off right away.
Go Ampex...
Dayal |
