It's always nice to have a contrarian view - makes people think who might otherwise tend to ignore issues. At a minimum you offer yourself as a target for various slings and arrows of the outraged investors...and I must disagree on several points you've made.
Regarding your commentary on the Shiva thread, you ought to look into the technology ASND just purchased in the form of Netstar's Giga-router IP switch.
Also, I think you got it wrong vis a vis the 4th quarter options recommendation - as I recall Morry Low suggested QQALK CALLS, not puts, as a way of hurting the shorters.
And as for the number of employees, seems to me that the 1994 Annual Report indicated something like 100 employees about when the AR was issued. If they're at 350+ now, that's incredible growth in one year - but they weren't taking on fry cooks. Check out their site and look at the employment opportunities and the qualifications established for the various positions. They're looking for highly experience, top-quality engineers and others. Because of their growth history and the stock options everyone gets (also in the Annual Report as well as being mentioned on the conference call on the Netstar acq.)they probably are getting the cream of the crop.
That kind of horsepower isn't being hired to create doggerel or me-too products, you can betcher bottom dollar. They've got a vision that is leading to greater things, IMO.
Lastly, whatever one might otherwise think about ASND, you must acknowledge their ability to be nimble on their feet. Initially they produced products for the videoconferencing market, but once they saw the Internet's potential what did they do? They refocussed the company's efforts and created the "bandwidth on demand" technology.
Since then they've acquired technology from Dayna, security software by the buyout of Morningstar very, very recently, plus Netstar just last week.
And don't forget that they made a private placement about a year ago which brought in something like almost $200 million which they've used sparingly if at all. That treasure trove is available for more acquisitions, as is unissued stock already approved by shareholders, I believe.
My gut feeling is that we've not heard the last of brilliant moves by ASND's management.
Dee Jay
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