Just woke up this morning after an exhausting day at the shareholder's meeting.
I noticed that Michael has already informed the thread about the most important elements of the meeting. I'll merely add some more detail and comment on what I saw. Of course, I took notes as best I could, so please forgive me if I missed some element of the meeting or if I mis-characterize management's answers.
My thoughts:
1) The OEM Clik! drive on display was incredibly small. Just like Michael said. I brought a camera with me and took pictures of the display. As soon as they are developed, I'll scan them and post them for all to see. They wouldn't let me, however, take pictures of the OEM drive.
2) I had tried to create a diversion with my picture taking so Michael could swipe an OEM drive, or at least a Clik! disk. No such luck. <G>
3) Each of the heads of the three divisions spoke at length about their area of responsibility. I was, of course, most interested when Fred Forsyth, head of the Mobile Products Division (Clik!) spoke. I heard him mention the NEC/Clik! license deal, almost in passing. Unless you were really listening, you would have missed it.
4) David Dunn told the audience that he and another board member traveled to NY and interviewed several head hunter firms in order to find a new CEO. I believe that he said they had already chosen a firm, but I can't remember for sure.
5) A little old lady asked what I thought was one of the best questions. She asked if the stock split was a mistake. David Dunn admitted that while they never expected the stock price to go into the single digits, that yes, the stock split was a mistake.
6) One gentleman asked why Iomega hadn't taken a mere $7 million from reserves and added them to earnings, since if they had, IOM would have made the numbers on Jan 22. David Dunn replied that had someone suggested that, they would have been fired on the spot. Len Purkis chimed in as well, saying that doing that would have been unethical.
7) A room next to the meeting room contained several displays of Iomega products. There were displays for Clik!, Buz (with Jaz 1GB and Jaz 2GB), Recordit (with Zip and Zip Plus), Ditto Max and Ditto Max Pro. All the displays were very impressive. I was most impressed with the Clik! display, of course.
8) One gentleman <g> asked whether the Zip PP and Zip SCSI drives would be phased out in favor of ZipPlus, so that Iomega could concentrate instead on just one Zip product line in order to reduce production costs. Ed Briscoe, head of the Personal Products Division (Zip) responded that they were already considering this. The Autodetect technology contained in the ZipPlus adds to customer value, since the drive is easier to install, more flexible, more portable, and faster. This decision would be made, of course, at the appropriate time.
Regards,
Philip |
