where does isln fit into this discussion? thx...
Competing product seen dragging down STEC shares
Pliant Technology earlier this week announced that it was launching storage drives called Enterprise Flash Drives, or EFDs for the enterprise SSD market. STEC (STEC) had previously made the only EFDs for the SSD, or solid state drive market. Pliant's SSDs compare favorably to STEC's high-end ZeusIOPS line, according to EnterpriseStorageForum.com. Pliant contends that its EFDs are "an ideal solution for write intensive enterprise applications," while existing SSDs limit workloads. "Flash-based storage has the potential to impact data centers in very positive ways, but cost and reliability concerns persist among enterprise IT managers seeking to leverage SSD technology," said Jeff Janukowicz, the research manager for Solid State Drives at IDC. "SSD solutions, such as Pliant’s Lightning EFDs that can help address these concerns by delivering high reliability, efficiency and predictable performance, will help fuel the mainstream enterprise adoption of flash storage over the next few years," he added. Meanwhile, a Stifel Nicolaus analyst believes that Pliant's announcement may be putting pressure on STEC's stock, which is trading around $33.57 in late morning trading, down from just over $40 at the beginning of the week. On a positive note, the firm does not think that Pliant's move will affect STEC over the next several months, and it still expects the company to report better than expected results for its September and December quarters. However, Stifel Nicolaus believes that there will be a significant increase in the "competitive noise" in STEC's sector in coming months. The firm, which has a Hold rating on STEC, believes Pliant's announcement supports its cautious view on STEC's shares. Likewise, Wedbush's channel checks indicate that there is more competition in the enterprise SSD market than it had previously expected. The firm lowered its target on STEC to $39 from $45 but maintains an Outperform rating on the stock. Needham and Deutsche bank are more optimistic about STEC ,as both firms are defending the stock this morning. In late trading, STEC sank $4.36, or 11.50%, to $33.57. |
