I spoke with Bernie Schneider, V.P. of Strategic Business Development today. I took very precise notes during the call so as to avoid any embellishment of his comments in this forum. The following is a summary of our dialogue.
Q: Re: Insider Selling
A: Basically reiterated story as posted in the Mercury News Article that 1. Dahl was retiring (new CFO had just been announced minutes earlier)and sale was planned, 2. this represented the first time that executives could sell shares since ASND/CSCC merger (Feb.), and 3. Mory Ejabat sells shares every quarter and 15,000 is a very small %.
Q: Re: Current Quarter.
A: The current quarter is ahead of last quarter (Q3) at this time.
Q: So revenue was greater than $62 million for the month of October?
A: Yes.
Q: The analysts consensus estimate for the current quarter is .23 per share, are you comfortable with this number?
A: As comfortable as one can be one month into the quarter. (mentioned) $290 million and .23 per share. "Am cautiously optimistic, The quarter will not be back-end loaded. However, will not be making press release to that effect."
Q: Re: any adverse impact due to Hong Kong / Asia Pac. region:
A: Not anticipating any, as Pac Rim only represents 5% of revenue.
Q: Will NTT deal contribute revenue during the current quarter?
A: Yes.
Q: Are there any major deals pending?
A: None that I can discuss. Added that the major Telco's are not as open in allowing press releases.
Mr Schneider also added that they only report "sold through revenue".
If I understood correctly, this refers to revenue only being reported following sale to end user. (vs. to reseller / distributor). Indicated that inventories were low through this channel.
Our conversation lasted approximately 4 - 5 minutes. If I could be a little bit subjective here, I would say that Mr. Schneider sounded generally upbeat and confident. He certainly resolved any significant fears and concerns I had regarding my conviction to staying in the stock long term, as well as to buy aggressively at these levels.
Lastly, I very much appreciated receiving a phone call back from a high level executive in response to my inquiry. This goes a long way.
If you're reading Bernie, Thanks
LJ |
