CHARLOTTE -- Shares of SeaChange International Inc. (SEAC) and Concurrent Computer Corp.
(CCUR) fell sharply Tuesday after a coveted contract to supply video-on-demand equipment to AOL
Time Warner Inc.'s (AOL) New York City market reportedly went to a privately held supplier.
Thomas Weisel Partners LLC analyst Jason Ader said the contract, which he estimates is worth
between $20 million and $25 million, has gone to "dark horse candidate" nCUBE Corp., a Portland, Ore.,
company whose chairman and majority owner is Oracle Corp. (ORCL) Chairman and Chief Executive
Larry Ellison.
A spokesman for SeaChange said the company won't comment on the contract until its 5 p.m. EST
conference call to discuss fourth-quarter earnings. A spokesman for nCUBE had no comment, and
contacts with Concurrent and Time Warner weren't immediately available for comment.
New York City is the largest cable system in the U.S., with about 1.1 million subscribers. And
SeaChange and Concurrent to this point have been the major suppliers of video-on-demand servers,
Ader said.
Losing the contract to nCUBE "was definitely a psychological negative for both SeaChange and
Concurrent," Ader said. But he doesn't believe it will have a major impact on the outlook or market
position of either company.
"The stocks are overreacting today," Ader said. "We don't think this really changes the competitive
landscape or the playing field, so to speak, because nCUBE today still has only a few cities in the U.S.
they've won, whereas SeaChange and Concurrent each have dozens."
He left unchanged his buy rating for SeaChange and his attractive rating on Concurrent shares.
Nasdaq-listed shares of Concurrent recently traded down $3.24, or 27%, at $8.68 on volume of 7.9
million shares. Average daily volume for the Atlanta company's shares is 1.2 million shares.
SeaChange's shares were down $2.85, or 13%, at $19.41 on Nasdaq volume of 3.8 million shares.
Average daily volume for the Maynard, Mass., company is 645,177 shares.
Updated March 5, 2002 2:01 p.m. EST
DOW JONES NEWSWIRE |
