>>These guys want IONA to comment in a valuable manner 10 hours only after preliminary results are known.<<
You make this sound like an unreasonable request. Dealing with analysts is an essential part of life on NASDAQ, and the market's likely reaction would have been anticipated and planned around. The situation is not without precedent, after all. BEA took a similar 50% hit, with a very similar announcement, back in November.
Maybe, just maybe, there was nothing to add to the story, nor will there be any startling revelations on April 14th. The market is becoming more competitive, as a result of which sales leadtimes are extending as companies do substantially greater due diligence on both their requirements and the potential solutions. Gone are the days where a pilot project could be approved in a matter of weeks, evaluations are now extending to months.
I will be particularly interested in hearing the official version of their "enterprise sales" experience on April 14th. In this region Iona has followed a "do it all ourselves" approach, providing little in the way of attraction for channel partners. It may just be the case that this marketing model lacks scalability, who knows....
david |
