Whatageek: Slept through the call, eh? Well, you didn't really miss anything. MZ did the spinning, and the other management team participants backed him up. WSTL is supposed to be rolling out new products (wireless is but one example), they expect to continue to grow the business "organically." They wouldn't talk about that "charges associated with a potential strategic acquisition that the Company chose not to complete" at all. Etc., etc. But to be fair, here are the highlights as posted by a Yahoo threadster:
Management is very Bullish on WSTL and Future of Broadband
ILECS are customers and not CLECS
Need a bigger customer base beyond VZ,BT and SBC.
WSTL is a benefactor of current shakeout.
2-horse with WSTL the smaller horse with less resources.
Inventory is more than expected but this is a good thing now to meet increasing demand. Mentioned that now you can ship to Malaysia rather than fly.
New product introductions with Web Share and upcoming Integrated Access Device.
Market share is the same, and may have grown in the area of WSTL products. Competitors may have extra products.
Failure is that WSTL did not bring in new big customers.
Components are now secured relative to flash and caps...
Backlog in TAP is larger than normal but they expect significant growth...
Now I've give MZ one thing. Compared to where the company was a year ago the employees have certainly moved it forward. However, I give management no credit in the credibility department. My read on the analysts asking the questions is they were soft-pedaling it. Probably because for them WSTL is now all about damage control, and since they bought MZ's road show bill of goods.....well....you know how it goes....everyone will be spinning it after their fashion.
So where does all this mess leave us? All the "news" is out. WSTL in premarket appears to be trading around $6.5 or so. Based on the earnings release, managements new numbers which clearly cannot be trusted I've the feeling WSTL goes nowhere fast for the next couple of quarters. At the least.
But xDSL is growing. The demand is there and only ~1% of the market has been penetrated. WSTL may get its act together by the time the marketplace becomes a commodity affair. Now let's see how the market deals with this mess.
John~ |
