Some thought on AXC...
>>>Did you expect this article in Data Storage to have a positive impact on this stock?<<<
Not really. The magazine is targeted for those (mostly technical people) who work in the digital storage industry - most of the articles are very technical in nature, written by engineers. As far as analysts or firms covering Ampex, I'm not sure, but Penn Merchants Group seems to ring a bell. Perhaps someone else knows for sure. Regarding your statement concerning the "quietness" of Ampex's management, that is true. I actually think that's positive. We won't know for sure until we see a press release - good news on a keepered contract would definitely drive the price up. I still have a feeling the first company to sign an agreement with Ampex will be Western Digital, using a modified Read-Rite TFI (thin-film inductive) tri-pad head. WDC seems to want to extend the life of non-MR (magneto-resistive) head disk drives - perhaps it's because the manufacturing yeilds are still very low on the MR heads as compared to the regular TFI heads. I also read what appears to be an important supply issue with MR heads, though I'm not sure my information is up-to-date. It seems that all the merchant providers of production volumes of MR heads are Japanese companies such as TDK/SAE, Yamaha, and Alps Electric (IBM & Seagate are "captive" MR head producers and won't sell MR heads to other drive makers yet). There are concerns that without domestic suppliers to compete, the Japanese companies can easily control the price & supply, since drive manufacturers will be at the mercy of these companies for receiving these critical components in a timely fashion. If this is still true, drive manufacturers may want to wait for U.S. head producers to begin shipping MR heads in large volumes before diving into full-blown production of MR drives. Ampex could provide the means for extending the life by improving the performace of inductive head drives for at least another few years, allowing time to perfect production and yeilds of MR heads and drives. |
