All:
The following contains matters of fact and matters of speculation. I'll try to differentiate between each. On Dec 20th, the above referenced message#8269 was posted by me in response to Herb Greenberg's monthly (it seems) trashing of C-Cube in his San Francisco Chronicle column. It has become somewhat frustrating to see him play God with the emotions of uninformed investors and to play very loose with the facts. I had never before heard of the MPEG Associates group which he quoted in his Dec 20th column
sfgate.com
(type in "herb and greenberg" in the "byline" section, for Dec 20th 1996)
I was also somewhat curious as to why Herb would not use a well known, well respected organization such as DataQuest. I came to the asssumption that "MPEG" had the numbers that Herb wanted to use for his case and that DataQuest did not. DataQuest's numbers for DVD in '97 were 1.6mm over twice the number used by Herb when he quoted "MPEG". In my post, I requested for any information that anyone may have regarding this group. I called NYC directory assistance, checked a NYC phone book and generally asked some folks on Wall Street with some connection to the digital video industry. All efforts came up empty.
I sent 2 or 3 emails to Herb G for a phone number. The first 2 weeks of January I had no response from Herb, but curiously on a whim I called directory assistance one last time. And voila, the number for MPEG Associates was given to me. I called the number and the youngish, disoriented voice on the other end of the phone said "hello". This was the middle of the day, no receptionist, no "good afternoon, MPEG Associates". I had to ask the guy on the other end of the phone if this were the "MPEG Assoc". He affirmed that it was and answered a few of my questions. He had recently graduated from Columbia School of Business; while there he had done some work for a hedge fund over at Bear Stearns. He was 26 years of age
and, you guessed it, he was the "Chairman" of MPEG Assoc. I subsequently called the telephone company to get a listing date for the phone number. They informed me that the number for MPEG Assoc was requested for in November. Yes, that's November, 1996. Yes, that's a few weeks before Herb G is lifting the company up on a pedestal in his column as a venerated source of information for the digital market. A mere few weeks before Herb's column, this questionably qualified (my opinion) company opens its doors for business. So I call the young man back to confirm my belief that his company is only at a very nascent stage. He agrees with some defensiveness and is quite circumspect about whom he engages in business. He says that his company was, in fact, organized only a few months prior.
I, of course, wonder if he does business in order to give the facts as they are found in the marketplace,if he does business in order to fudge the numbers for a predetermined outcome for a hedge fund, or if he does any business at all. He is also circumspect about his connection to Herb Greenberg. Intrigue gets the better of me; so I check to see if he is chairman, CEO, salesman, secretary, and mail clerk all rolled into one. He says in another conversation that he has many contacts in the VCD market across the globe. I ask for a C.V. for him and a summary of his company and its expertise in the field. A very shoddily arranged one page black/white typewritten page of the company is the extent of the marketing effort |
