1) Unresolved Law Suit -Patent Infringement. (I heard there was one.) It's kind of hard to lay out ones strengths and weaknesses to the investment public on one hand and go to court on another.
AFAIK, the lawsuit filed by SGI involved infringement on their patented designs for rendering pipelines, and was pretty much the load of dung that broke the cart for nVidia with respect to their IPO.
Other watchbells: their reliance on a sole chip manufacturer with a history of unreliability, and the fact that their CFO graduated from a middle-tier school .. with a degree in Chemistry? That's ringing some serious alarm bells here. Without insulting anyone whose college degree is completely uncorrelated with a field in which they succeed .. um .. you'd think some study of corporate finance would be in order. Millions of dollars are on the line here.
Who was it that said "nVidia is big, 3Dfx is little, 3Dfx will be crushed"? When nVidia first announced the TNT I was sucked into thinking that they'd one-up 3Dfx (and that subsequently this market is too competitive for there to be a clear market leader) but after more investigation I'm feeling that 3Dfx is the only one with bragging rights, PERIOD (I just wish the market reflected this). All they have to do is stay ahead of the game, which they were good at before. Hopefully poor decisions don't make them a flash in the pan.
Given all this, and especially in light of the ever-dropping TNT performance reports, I doubt nVidia is much of a "threat". Regardless, they are a player in the market and especially if they pull the wool over the eyes of the public, they can have a serious on impact 3Dfx - for better or for worse.
-G |
