I got this email from an AOL reader who can't post here. He asked me to post his comments to the board....
Subj: TPRO BMY Press Release
Date: 97-12-20 23:46:45 EST
From: Mimbreno
To: Biffpincus
Biff,
I lurk on SI, as I don't have full posting capabilities. I am responding to your post where you point out that you think the Bristol Meyers press release didn't go far enough in clarifying TPRO's unique niche in the Y2K market.
Along those lines, I have been a tad displeased with how TPRO describes itelf in the press release. I don't think it makes the embedded systems angle clear enough.
The release starts out by saying (emphasis -upper caps - mine ):
" Topro, Inc., d.b.a. TAVA Technologies, Inc., (Nasdaq: TPRO - news) a leading PROVIDER OF AUTOMATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS to industry, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Bristol-Meyers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY - news) to provide Year 2000 tools and compliance support for all NON-INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY systems at approximately 125 sites worldwide."
This description of what the company does is almost contradictory within the SAME SENTENCE. Does TPRO/TAVA do Information Technology stuff or don't they? In my view, I wouldn't call their bread and butter services IT -- I prefer the factory automation or embedded systems phrases. If I were someone reading about TPRO for the first time in this press release, I might very well think that they did IT remediation work, a la Data Dimensions and others.
Towards the end of the press release, we see this statement (again, emphasis mine):
"TAVA (www.tavatech.com) PROVIDES FACTORY AUTOMATION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS INTERGRATION helping clients in the manufacturing process industries integrate their processes, applications, hardware and software into seamless manufacturing enterprises, featuring their Plant Y2K One(TM) CD-ROM..."
I like this description much better. I just wish the wording in the first paragraph jelled better with the wording used towards the end.
At the risk of committing the same error I am trying to point out, I'll sum up by saying that I think the press release suffers from some poor writing in places. It lacks clarity on the crucial point of telling the reader what unique area TPRO addresses with its services.
If this is the point you were getting at, Biff, or if it's even close, then I have to agree with you.
Last thing: I am mostly tickled pink over the BMY press release, so my comments here are not meant to be a complete condemnation of the release. Thank goodness we finally got some news like this! I am long TPRO and have high hopes for this company.
Thanks for your attention, Biff. Best wishes of the season,
Mimbreno
mimbreno@aol.com >> |
