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Technology Stocks : RATIONAL SOFTWARE- BUY OR HOLD

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To: Randy Ellingson who wrote (2804)1/20/1999 7:34:00 AM
From: Hans-Erik Eriksson  Read Replies (1) of 3115
 
Randy,

> Just a thought, but perhaps Rational sees more potential
> profits in their services and is happy to increase penetration
> at the cost of decreasing product margins. Is that likely to
> be part of their longer-term goals? Which tends to command
> higher profit margins in this field, product or service?

I think RATL is first and foremost and tools product company,
and will remain so. The reduced prices (still not exactly
'cheap' or 'give-away'!) are to increase penetration in a market
that they can see is there - many companies want to 'industrialize'
their development process but have found that buying a complete
set of tools for it has been to expensive (a too high price
barrier). Also, by selling in suites you are 'forced' to buy the
entire suite - I got Microsoft Office but regularly only use two
out of the four products in it. RATL plans to increase overall
volume by selling bundles of products to more customers at a lower price/product, but in the end get an overall higher margin.

With that said, there's still a great potential in services -
but the base of RATL will remain products. IMHO.

Best,

/Hans-Erik
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