Well put, pmcw. However, I took a positive view earlier this year about their progress when Bruce made an enthusiastic comment about their book/bill on a CC and learned the famous lesson, that "those who ignore the past are destined to repeat it". While your list of items has real merit, I have a list containing only two items:
-The retirement of all the dead wood and removal of any other barely competent people. Until this company is serious about being run by the best and the brightest, with standards of competency and performance, and appropriate rewards for success, and penalties for failure, I have little confidence about anything else. Staying awake does not make my list of job requirements, but does not even seem to be required at Xicor.
-Growth in sales. While I am competent to appreciate rvwink's model and the effect of product mix on margins and the bottom line (and have worked extensively with it), and am aware of historical examples like VTSS, where declines in sales to government concealed progress in communications chips for a period of time, this is a growth industry. I have heard enough about large increases in the number of design wins or the capacity outside fabs bring us. I am tired of playing what looks like a shell game, where it seems the company focuses my attention on one shell, while the real issue is hidden under another one. I want to see the company perform like a semiconductor company and grow sales.
On my scorecard, the company so far is 0 for 2.
By the way, the only reason I still hold the stock is because people whose judgment I respect and I consider more-informed are positive. In a sense, this is like the old-fashioned broker/client relationship, where the client relied on the broker for advice. I do not find this particularly easy, as I typically try to know as much about a company as anyone else and make my own judgment. However, technology is one area where I believe you have to rely on others many times - and try to know whom you are relying on. |
