I heard some interesting rumors recently regarding ACN. I believe my source is credible (although he does not want to be identified- BTW this is a different source than my friend the sonographer whose comments I've posted before). It seems there is concern among users about the reliability of Sequoia. My source indicated that some physicians seem independently to be aware of these rumors, but none of them seem to have any specific information. Standing alone, these rumors are not enough to draw any conclusions about, so if anyone knows anything more, I'd appreciate hearing about it.
On the bright side, this same source spoke briefly last month with a cardiologist who said Sequoia is by far their preferred system, at least compared with the HP machines his institution has. The cardiologist reportedly said he was easily able to see features with Sequoia that he had to work hard to see with HP. Unfortunately, I don't know what HP machines he was comparing to, but I'll try to find out.
Finally, The Wall Street Transcript published a roundtable discussion on 12 Jan 1998 regarding medical technology companies. One Frederick Wise from Bear Stearns spoke about ACN and ATI. Regarding ultrasound, he said, "There are two companies, and we are certainly focused on both of the players [ACN and ATLI]. We're about to begin, depending on how you might count it, the second or third year of a good rebound in U.S. medical capital equipment generally and demand for u/s equipment specifically. And we're seeing companies like ACN and ATLI benefit from that rebound. In the early '90's the US market probably declined in dollar terms 15-20% a year at the same time as these companies were investing something approaching 20% of their sales in R&D. And I think we're going to see the US u/s market grow this year at 10-12. Now that we're starting to see these markets rebound at a time when R&D costs are declining as a percentage of sales and these companies are bringing multiple new technology platforms to the market, that operating leverage is significant, and I think we're going to continue to see a strong rebound in earnings." |
