It might be too soon to forget about SST.
In 1996 the company had $93,290,000 in revenues, compared with $39,528,000 in 1995. Its working capital is more than $50,000,000. At the end of 1995 it sold 4,260,000 shares in its initial public offering; it currently has approximately 25,000,000 shares outstanding. Insiders seem to own 80% of the company.
The flash memory market is currently weak, but the company has not reported any quarterly losses. To capitalize on its depressed stock price, it is currently buying back its shares at one-third of what it sold them for in 1995 (pretty good for SST). The company is probably simply going for the best deal possible by presenting its current outlook in a negative light in order to flush out discouraged investors ready to dump their stock. Why else would they re-release OLD NEWS of a bearish nature on the very day that Atmel's earnings estimates were cut.
Late Friday afternoon market-makers were quick to drop their bid to 3-1/2 and their ask to 3-5/8. However, it took buyers of only a few thousand shares to drive the ask back to 3-7/8 before the market closed.
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