Jay,
Thanks for doing this. Between the lot of us, I am sure their are a million questions to ask, but only a few will be entertained. I am hoping you'll be able to include mine, as follows:
"From: Wayne Umfleet of Portland, Oregon
Mr. Bramson (or whoever),
I hold great confidence in the prospects for growth of Ampex over the next few years for a variety of reasons that include the strength of the DST product line, and the potential of the Ampex technology base. However, it is clear that one of the technology's that Ampex is commercializating right now could fundamentally change the revenue picture for the company in the near future: Keepered Media. Can you please tell us if Ampex is in active negotiations and/or discussions with any of the major disk drive manufacturers (Seagate, Western Digital or IBM) for the development of a disk drive program employing the use of Keepered Media? Also, what progress has been made in the development of the use of Keepered Media with Magneto Resistive drive heads since reporting in November of 1996 that a keepered layer was activiated with the use of an MR head?"
"The other question I have has to do with Ampex's professional video recording products. It was stated in the 1996 10K that Ampex viewed its DCT products as important for strategic reasons, in part because a continuing presence would help expand the market for the Company's DST products. Several companies are now marketing, or are developing disk-based systems (eg.Sony) for use in video content creation. Given the importance of protecting its market position for video recording products, does Ampex view disk-based systems as a threat that will cause further erosion in the sales of its DCT products? If so, how does Ampex plan to deal with this threat?"
Thanks Jay,
--Wayne-- |
