Dipy,
Your Rip Van Winkle comment speaks directly towards a certain Billion dollar investor named Buffet. However, Buffet's strategy draws from the value stock school of investing. The point is that if you believe in your Rip Van Winkle comment, that means you believe that SGI is a value stock. Value stocks have a few tell tale signs which most importantly include healthy management and vision.
Although I hate using the much over-used word "vision", it directly impacts the niche market of a company such as SGI. Can a company survive in this distributed systems industry on the fact that they have the coolest graphics servers and workstations? I believe that they can if they produce a drastically superior product and continue to charge a drastically inflated premium. However, it is unclear whether this is their "vision" or whether they are looking to jump head-first into the ultra competitive bureaucracy of volume sales.
For example, in a conference with Scott McNealy a summary slide was displayed showing various markets and competing products and vendors. The number one competitor was not IBM or HP ... yes, you guessed it, it was Bill Gates. Sun has clearly stated and acted in achieving their business strategy. I have yet to hear or see from SGI black-and-white statements of solid vision, strategy, market analysis, and plans on how to get there, all of which are consistent symptoms of a value stock.
Sincerely,
The Commish |
