Yep, it is getting really funny here. I have come to think of another
funny thing. For a long time, Ancor's main source of revenues had been
Hucom. It has been a common belief that the overseas markets, Japan
in particuliar have been way ahead of U.S. in fibre channel awareness
and deployment. Ancor's sales to the Japanese market have been a living proof of that. And something funny seems to have happened.
Despite the fact the fibre channel is no longer a Japanese phenomenon
and despite Ancor's early foothold there which I would have thought
should be an excellent stepping stone for excelerated growth ,
Ancor is instead expressing concerns about future sales citing it has
been just one customer Hucom used to resell to and they are done.
This statement also appears at a time when a better and cheaper product is now available from Ancor for Hucom to resell. It also
comes shortly after Arcxel signed a distribution deal with Hucom for
their fibre channel switch, switch far inferior to Ancor's according
to the specs.
For some reason Hucom signed a distribution deal with another fibre channel switch vendor even though apparently they might have a problem
with selling a better and cheaper switch from Ancor.
I think it's funny, not hysterical but still quite funny.
I seem to remember some discussion on this thread regarding
independent tests of the fibre channel switches performance.
Anybody doing that? Or is it still my press release versus yours kinda
thing?
All of the above comes from 'the research based on world wide web'.
Those with insider info and 'real scoop' please explain.
Please don't cite the SouthEast Asia currency crisis, conservative
approach by new management at Ancor, product transition and resulting
difficulties in volume shipments, NDA agreements and resulting
inability to do effective marketing, business slowdown in Japan, etc, etc, etc. Real scoop only please.
I also wonder what the next Q lower revenues prediction by Ancor's
management could amount to if Hucom doesn't find another buyer?
So far I count one switch sold to Amoco, and one powering the worlds
largest telescope. That's two switches. Now, two switches times...
well, that's not really funny.
From Ancor's Q3 10Q:
'A significant portion of the Company's revenues (14% in fiscal 1996 and 83% in
the first nine months of 1997) were generated by a single customer, Hucom, Inc.
Product purchased from the Company by Hucom is remarketed to end users. A
significant portion of Hucom's sales of Ancor's products in fiscal 1996 and
fiscal 1997 have been to one end user. In future periods, Hucom's sales of
Ancor's products to this end user are expected to be significantly less than in
fiscal 1997. The Company's business would be materially, adversely impacted if
other end users are not found to replace this level of business or if Hucom
ceased doing business with the Company unless and until additional resellers are
established. |
