Mr. Stuff, since it seems you certainly do know your stuff, let me just list what I consider to be the shortcomings with Open Text. I'm certainly prepared to listen to another point of view.
1. Unlikelihood of profit at least till 3Q98, maybe longer (although this is just an opinion sort of deal)
2. Traditional, larger, better capitalized competitors working on similar products (granting Open Text's technological lead)
3. Reliance on a very expensive direct sales approach (although they are moving to change this).
4. Management worries. period
5. Indirect Distribution channels are underdeveloped. Talk all we want about competing technologies, marketing and "mind" share wins this game.
6. Competition will go through the roof before they have the chance to build a significant service revenue base.
I should mention also that if Open Text were to sign a couple of OEM agreements to the scale of the deal with Siemens or show some success in vertical markets, I might take a position. Till then, this company, IMHO, is speculative at best.
L8R |
