FWIW...... the article.....
Hauppauge Digital Stock Gets A Boost
newsday.com
By Mark Harrington. STAFF WRITER
Shares of Hauppauge Digital Inc. continued their sharp ascent
yesterday, soaring as high as $38 before closing at $30.37 1/2 as the
company confirmed it had several pending e-commerce deals using its
digital TV tuner cards for PCs.
"It's the stock du jour," said Steven Singleton, director of
research at Robert Van Securities, Oakland, Calif., who noted "the very
tangible things the company can do."
Kenneth Plotkin, chairman and chief executive, said yesterday the
previously announced agreement to incorporate Wave Systems Corp.'s
"money chip" on its Digital TV/PC boards to facilitate high-speed
Internet sales was the first in a series of deals to build its
e-commerce business.
In addition to Wave Systems, Plotkin confirmed there's "a whole
bunch of companies getting involved in this" but declined to disclose
them.
Hauppauge Digital's stock set a record high yesterday and was the
second-most active NASDAQ issue, as 23.25 million shares traded. The
stock more than doubled on Friday, closing at $27.81 1/4 .
Hauppauge had announced the Wave Systems agreement last fall,
Plotkin said, and expects to show the fruits of that agreement on
Friday, when the company will provide more details on the e-commerce
system.
Hauppauge, which last year reported net income of $1.9 million on
sales of $38.7 million, is banking on the growth of High Definition TV
broadcasts to popularize its DTV receivers in personal computers. In
addition to sharper TV signals, DTV also will allow the largest
"pipeline" for information into homes and businesses: 19 million bits
per second compared with cable modems' 5 million bits per second. Unlike
cable, however, DTV signals are one-way, requiring a mechanism like Wave
Systems' money chip to relay purchase information from consumers.
Using the system, Plotkin said record companies could download
entire libraries into home PCs at night. The money chip built into its
boards would allow consumers to pay for only selections they desire.
Using DTV, a standard CD could be downloaded in about five minutes, he
said.
Hauppauge's DTV cards start at $299 compared with the $5,000-plus
for DTV sets.
Since DTV signals will travel over the airwaves, "All homes will
have access once the network's in place," said Plotkin.
Key to the deal will be Hauppauge's ability to convince computer
companies to incorporate the DTV board into PCs. To date, the company
has sold most of its boards as add-ons to consumers who already own a
system. Asked about deals with PC makers, Plotkin said there were "none
that I can talk about right now."
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