Phoenix Technologies (PTEC) Message Board

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Technology Stocks : Phoenix Technologies (PTEC)

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To: Mark Brophy who wrote (2936)	11/28/1998 12:55:00 PM
From: Tim Oliver	Read Replies (2) of 3624

I like NOVL a lot better than PTEC now. NOVL was nearly dead and is coming back to life after hiring Stanford University Network's (SUN Microsystem) CTO who freely admitted that he didn't have a clue what to do when he was first hired. Management is everything! I'm happy to have had a very small part in Novell's early years. It was fun watching Bob Metcalfe (inventor of Ethernet at Xerox,founder of 3Com, and former arch-enemy of Novell) squirm in agony on the recent 3 hr. PBS show on the internet when he talked about how Microsoft duped him. It was even more enjoyable for me though to know that the world's richest man who runs Microsoft (so big that the U.S. government is now his BIGGEST competitor!), was terrorized and felt impotent by Novell's dominance of PC networking for a few years in the late 80s. Poor Noorda at Novell didn't have a clue what he was doing though when the company got to 1000 employees so he went on a buying rampage hoping that it would cover up his incompetence. He's a small company entrepreneur and nearly destroyed the company that he revived out of near-death. I'm really happy that the chief counsel at Novell can still catch trout out of the backyard of his mansion and wasn't forced into destitution in the back alleys of Provo. PTEC could have been a $40 stock by now if they'd had the right management. It's tough to be a 99 cent hamburger vendor when you don't have any real brand recogniton at the enduser level and have no upgrade program. Phoenix has already lost employees. The founder of Virtual Chips, Raj Raghavan, left to start a new IP company that Phoenix might purchase in a few years. A decent manager wouldn't be nearly so charitable to people that he pays millions of dollars to for unproven technology. Jack Kay is as clueless as Noorda was when he nearly destroyed Novell. Jack based his business plan and future of his company a couple years ago on an average PC costing $2500. Noorda saw no value in icons or in multi-tasking at the desktop before those things became standard, yet I believe he is still more qualified than Jack. No harm done though. Bill Gates is there to take up the slack. He doesn't need good products with guys like Noorda and Kay out there.

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