Albert, you may not believe it, but I didn't know about the news yesterday when I posted that message. The indications of the downturn were extremely clear. The stock failed to rally after the TI news and the ALA RFP being 'good for DMT' didn't help either. I opinion was purely based on watching the day by day trading and nothing else.
Folks Albert is referring to this news item and he thinks I knew about it ahead of time. Basically, I didn't, but believe what you like. Techie
Amati CEO Sees Profits From Fast Technology Coming
Slowly
By Shawn Young
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Amati Communications Corp. (AMTX) is calmly preparing to report
a string of quarterly losses as it awaits the payoff from technology that could speed up digital
transmission over ordinary copper telephone wires.
''We do not see being profitable in the foreseeable future,'' Amati's president and chief executive
officer, Jim Steenbergen, told Dow Jones.
The San Jose, Calif., company holds the license for industry-standard modem technology,
currently in U.S. trials, that helps digital video, data and voice signals move over copper telephone
wires at high speeds.
Amati's product, called discreet multitone technology, scouts out the clearest, most receptive
frequencies on telephone lines and directs signals along those paths.
Steenbergen said the technology will not hit the market until next year and Amati is not expected to
turn a profit until sometime in 1998.
Late next month Amati expects to report a fiscal first-quarter loss similar to its fourth-quarter loss
of $2.2 million, or 13 cents a share, Steenbergen said.
Steenbergen said he expects Amati's annual revenues to be about $20 million. Roughly half will
come from Amati's operations in the form of licensing fees and contracts, he said. The other half
will reflect revenue from ICOT Corp., which bought Amati and took its name last year.
Steenbergen said Motorola Inc. (MOT) is currently developing a modem using Amati's
technology.
''We believe that if you want to make a modem that meets the standard, you have to take a license
from us,'' Steenbergen said.
The technology's purpose is to enhance asymmetric digital subscriber-line modems, which allow
very quick transmission of data or images between a central office and an outside point, such as a
home or field office, over regular telephone wires.
Amati is one of the companies supplying modem technology for a high-speed Internet access trial
being conducted in the state of Washington by GTE Corp. (GTE) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT).
It currently has trials running on 60 lines in the U.S.
Amati's transmission technology is also in trials in about 30 markets overseas, Steenbergen said.
Amati's main competitor, Steenbergen said, is Westell Technologies Inc. (WSTL)
Amati was formed in 1992 by Stanford University professor John Cioffi with funding from
Stanford, which now owns about 500,000 shares and gets one-third of Amati's royalties,
Steenbergen said. Cioffi remains the company's chief technical officer.
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