Panda just had a conference call on the Veridicom deal.
You can listen to a replay by dialing 1-800-475-6701 and
use the code 376333. (international 1-320-365-3844).
My take: Stanford has lost his mind. He refused to discuss
finances. They didn't announce earnings - just talked for
nearly an hour about the Veridicom deal. They're about to
release a new version of Archistrat call "Rock City". It's
a scalable personal workstation priced from $995 - $12,000.
It's a "lifestyle appliance for GenX" (this is a direct quote
from Stanford). This is going to be the really significant
product of 1998 for Panda! (according to Stanford).
More details on Veridicom: ~1M part order, 60 pin packages
(going to 160 pins?). (I'm skeptical that they can even break even
at this price.)
Not from the conference call, directly from Veridicom: No upfront
payments. Panda gets paid for packages after they're delivered
and accepted - no delivery, no pay.
Lots of discussion about potential customers, but no real details.
Stanford was very proud of having a paper accepted on the VSPA
MCM accepted at an international conference - in India!
They're raised the price of the VSPA/Flex production machines
from $750K to $2M. (Editorial: seems strange - they couldn't
sell any for $750K but they're going to sell lots for $2M!)
Actually, they had to raise the price - the cost of manufacture
was more than $750K.
Another great quote to a question about whether the Asia problems
affect Panda, was that since the Taiwanese can't afford to buy
new fabs instead they're going to buy VSPA/Flex production machines!?
It appears the LG Cable still hasn't sold *any* Compass connectors -
but real soon now... (You will recall that mass production was
to start in May of 1997.)
Question was asked about status of 30K unit archistrat government
bid (ed: a bid deal was made about this in the last conference
call): "We don't know".
Question about price of Helix warrents. Some confusing answer
about lower of closing price (on what date?) or price of next
financing. More interesting: "Helix is very keen on diversifying
the stockholder base". Translation: Helix wants somebody else
to invest money - they're not interested.
Final discussion on how to get VSPA/Flex machines into Taiwan
market. Even after buying a machine you still have to pay
a royalty to Panda. Panda is considering owning the machines
in Taiwan and letting the Taiwanese supply labor, and then
pay Panda directly for the packages. This would "conserve
capital" for the Taiwanese. (Yeah, but...)
If one didn't know better this almost sounds like a company really on
a roll - just like every other conference call Stanford has
even given. Unfortunately the reality never seems to match
the promise. Oh, well, maybe this time is different.
Anyway, listen to it yourself and see what you think.
Mike |
