Dale:
I'm a newcomer to Syquest. Got interested in them last summer when I was about to buy an Iomega Jaz drive, heard somewhere about the Syjet, couldn't find one for sale, called Syquest direct to buy one forthwith --- only to discover that they weren't shipping. "Next month." I called back several times last fall, only to get the same message. Watched their web site to see when the external one would ship, and when I saw no announcement that the external unit was shipping, even though PCMag had given a strongly favorably review as if the Syjet was shipping, I called Syquest last week and was told that they *were* shipping not only the internal but also the external Syjet. Apparently no one released a press release announcing that, or at least no one posted it on the Syquest web site? Or, maybe I missed it, but I don't think so.
Can you or anyone else here confirm that both the internal and external Syjet are shipping? I *have* seen the Ezflyer in Northern California stores.
Also, can you or anyone else out there clarify the broad outlines of the company's history? Someone told me that one of the founders left within the last year or so (I know not whether the departure was friendly or forced) and has started his own company, presumably to make drives. I may have that totally balled up. Any help would be much appreciated.
Finally, you wrote:
>> With about $20 million in equity, 95% of their shares accounted for, <<
I assume you mean $20 million in equity on the books, not the market value of the stock. But what do you mean by "accounted for?"
After looking at the stock chart, I can see why any investor at past (higher) prices would be very discouraged. But for a newcomer such as myself, I don't see why the world isn't jumping ou this: superior product according to the specifications, rave reviews, excellent product reputation (previous products), name brand, customer need (I've been going without a thorough backup for my main machine ---a TI Travelmate 5300 --- waiting for this product to actually ship). The Ezflyer may be too late to make its mark (i.e. the Iomega Zip may have become a standard alternative to the diskette, as the PCMag review suggests), but this standard issue should be less important for the Syjet, assuming that a Syjet 1.5gb cartridge is less likely to be passed around to other users in the same way as a diskette or a Zip or
(we hope) EzFlyer cartridge.
Of course, Syquest is losing money, but I'd expect that if they were not yet shipping their current product. So again, why isn't everybody jumping on this?
Price and volume jumped up on 8 May, the day of the earnings announcement, so I thought that maybe insiders (with the freedom to act given that the available news had been announced) might be buying --- but then on 9 May the stock died below 2.00, as I recall. Any thoughts on what was going on there? Or what was happening on Wednesday 13 May, when the stock rose substantially? I couldn't find any news to account for it.
Any background to Syquest that you or anyone else can provide would be *much* appreciated!
Cordially, Roger Folsom |
