<< 8.PTEC(Happy Bids, tell us about your company) >>
Our stock price has dropped dramatically over the past year !!! : ' (
I guess you know that already.
I have been terrible at forecasting the price of our stock. When it hit 20 in May, 1996, I was convinced that it would quickly reach it's "fair value" of $30 imminently. This "fair value" in my mind was strongly affected by SYSF, a major competitor, whose stock ran from $12 to $72 in 1996. (It actually split 2-for-1, to reach a high of $36 post-split, after a 500% gain in about 9 months.) I felt that we were a much better company with a much brighter future, and I was correct! SYSF closed at 34 cents today! Still, our Relative Strength over SYSF didn't keep us from dropping 75% from our high in 1996!
I was amazed when we went to $5 last month. We haven't been that low since August, 1994! I sure hope that we have seen the bottom!
Public information that I can share: We recently acquired Award Software in a pooling of assets acquisition. This was announced about seven months ago and approved by the government about a month ago. As soon as it was official, we acquired Sand. PTEC focuses on the high-end BIOS business and Award focuses on the low-end BIOS business, so we were not really competitors, but we should be much stronger as a single company. Sand is in the Synthesizable Core business along with our Virtual Chips group. The "merger" of these two groups should also add strength. With Award, we had about $120M in revenue for the fiscal year ending 9/98. This should give us a good critical mass going forward and hopefully get the attention of mutual funds. We are profitable, have $80M in cash, and no debts.
Bottom line: I can keep my day job !!! : ' )
Seriously, the company has a lot going for it and could do very well over the long haul. I have been unsuccessful at trying to predict it's stock movements, perhaps because I am too close to it to be objective, so I will stick to investing in companies I don't know <GGG> !!! : ' ) TA does have its advantages !!! : ' )
Mark, thanks for including PTEC in your list, and hopefully it will pop up in your scans a few more times before it blasts through your $12 ceiling and off your radar scope !!! : ' )
Best wishes to you and your wife this week. Your family is in my prayers.
May God show Himself strong on your behalf this week.
Best regards -- HB
P.S. Sorry for the late reply. The good news is that PTEC is about 7% cheaper now than it was when the market opened this morning! |
