Hello Dick!
Thanks for your phone message and your Silicon Investor posts. As a major shareholder, I would like to present a different point of view.
Your concerns appear to be: 1. Marketing is bad. 2. Management is bad -- we need a high-power $250K/year CEO. 3. The Board Of Directors is bad, composed of "yes men". 4. Results are bad, and ultimately a company is judged only on results.
1. "Marketing is bad." Actually, I think marketing is excellent. They are in final stage negotiations with Fox. There can be no better venue for SuperVision. They are going for the massive home run. A good idea, in my opinion. In tennis, they have made an impressive debut on German National TV, a very conservative and very powerful broadcaster. This represents a marketing coup. Furthermore, they have formed a 7-year alliance with LMC in Germany. This multiplies their marketing efforts without costing them a penny -- indeed, LMC paid for the TennisProView development. Very smart.
2. "Management is bad." I have personally met Ed Plumacher. I am very impressed. I have also spoken with top executives who have done business with him -- at Teledyne, LMC, Silicon Graphics, and others. They are uniformly impressed and very complimentary.
3. "The Board Of Directors is bad". Actually, the Board is very strong and a real asset to Questec. We have Bill Cavanagh, a successful, well-connected entrepreneur who founded a company that was purchased by American Express. We have Mr. Baim, Director of Software Development at Atlantic Aerospace -- a heavy hitter. We have Felix Margraaf, the owner of LMC, a hot German production company. We have the CFO of Timberland. These are not "yes men". These are serious, successful, well-connected businessmen, whose presence on Questec's board constitutes a serious endorsement of the company. (It would be nice if Questec presented, on their website, a brief bio of each member of the Board.)
4. "Results are bad." We should distinguish between "results" and "revenues". Anyone who thinks that results are "bad" should carefully re-read the last three press releases, and then review Greenie's two excellent posts of two weeks ago. To which I will add the following: I am involved in various early-stage companies. Rule number 1: Things take longer than you think. As shareholders we should be aware that starting a new business entails risk. Typically, a certain amount of time must be spent establishing a foundation for future growth. With the Atlantic Aerospace alliance, Questec has secured a fabulous business partner (see Greenie's post). Ditto for LMC. The ACTV connection is significant -- in case anyone hasn't heard, interactive TV is the FUTURE of TV, and ACTV may well be the "operating system" for these new boxes. All these achievements, together with the Tennis product etc etc, represent real "results".
My conclusion? Questec is impressive. They are INVENTING a market -- sports broadcast enhancement in a wide variety of sports. They are single-handedly creating a market and establishing themselves as the global dominant player. If they succeed, investors will be very happy.
This will be my last post for a while. Rather than debate this issue, let us simply watch as events unfold in 1999. As you know, I own many Questec shares. After reading the Atlantic Aerospace news release, and the ACTV release, I have further increased my position.
Best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year!
Simon
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