Denise Franklin is either a liar or woefully uninformed and, as such, her and the department are needless overhead. The problem is you have people who are hangers-on that can't get employment elsewhere when they behave in such a way that makes it obvious they are part of Borland's problem, not part of the solution. Comapanies don't want to import other companies' trash and unless and until the trash is thrown out, we are stuck with it.. As for the anecdotal story about losing $200 million, I will gladly trade places with you or Larry Ellison who lost $2000 million just to see what it feels like to have that kind of money! On a more general level, I think anything BORL has to say should be made public versus private communications with fat-cat shareholders like yourself -- he said, wishing he were a fat-cat. Gene, I think it's advantage technical visionaries right now and if you believe in component-based, thin-client architectures in the enterprise you have to doff your hat to Del Yocam and the direction he is taking this company.
Now, what is the market telling us? They are telling us that they don't have the foggiest idea what this pardigm shift is all about and I can point you to some very bright technical journalists and industry pundits that don't get it either. They may also be telling us that Del is about to become CEO of AAPL and that's something that should be cleared up immediately. The advantages of Java-based components and architectures over Windows networks and objects is not obvious but they have earthshaking consequences. Getting back to BORL, I will tell you right now that ORCL has failed to deliver on the tools front despite virtually unlimited resources and several years of trying. In a distributed environment based on industry standards, your components and tools are everything. ORCL's customer base is a virtual goldmine of opportunity for tiny Borland, as are IBM's AS/400 shops. The key is that Microsoft won't touch these markets because they don't want them to be successful. It's Borland's to win or lose. |
