This ( SEVENTH ) compilation of questions ( from May 28 - June 13 ) addresses the interactive Webcast meeting with Ed Bramson scheduled for June 28, 1999. For the rationale behind this effort, see:
Message 9838146
ADVERTISING PUBLIC RELATIONS and CORPORATE BRANDING
With all the developments concerning Ampex the last six months, doesn't it seem odd that not one; solitary, forward looking analyst, has seen fit to pick up coverage or put out a recommendation? Even with AXC's chosen path of keeping a low profile I find it hard to fathom that no one else is watching this company. Surely we AXC longs are not the only ones who see the potential?
...John M - Silicon Investor 6/1
How is the "Branding of Ampex" progressing?
...Chris Elsass - Silicon Investor 6/3
What kind of advertising do we have for the DST's? I know this takes a backseat to all the Internet related questions; but the DST's are the reason I was buying AXC under a buck. As bandwidth increases, data storage = exponential growth.
...NosajTheWarriorKing - Yahoo! Finance 6/2
What exactly is our business relationship with MWW Group and when will they start a public relations campaign for the "NEW" Ampex (if that is their function)
...bearpi9 - Yahoo! Finance 6/5
Recent releases have had the phrase...TVontheWEB a strategic partner of Ampex... At this point would it not be better, from Ampex's point of view, for releases to be saying: A subsidiary of Ampex?
...Michael Olds - Silicon Investor 6/9
(1)Why has Ampex shunned publicity for ANY of its accomplishments? It makes no sense to keep everything a secret until every piece is in place, unless there is a strategic advantage to doing so. Does Ampex have some strategic advantage it is withholding?
(2)Has Ampex received any offers or to be bought out or to form strategic alliances with that it has not made public?
(3) What has Raymond Marione been doing the last 5 months, if anything?
...Billy__Clinton - Yahoo! Finance 6/9
FINANCING and CASH FLOWS
Where's the money to fully develop Ampex's plans going to come from?
...Hal Campbell - Silicon Investor 5/28
"The Story Please," by which I mean, how will Ampex weave all this wonderful technology, "aquirements" and advancements into revenue and profits?
...TheStoryPlease - Yahoo! Finance 6/2
With the storage sales of the company declining and the current outflow of available cash and credit going to build the new narrowcasting and streaming video content what area's of that business will produce revenues and how long before you will begin to see any results. Do you believe advertising and channel hosting fees will be enough to become profitable or is there another source of potential revenue you see providing income?
...hookjock - Yahoo! Finance 6/4
JOINT VENTURES and PARTNERING
Ampex may need financing soon and Kodak needs digital expertise due to the Video Market going digital. Is Ampex doing any joint venture research with Kodak who has great photographic expertise?
...Skip Miller - Silicon Investor 5/28
Do we have some potential partners yet with the clout and cash? Is anyone even interested? No names need be mentioned, but a confirmation to that would be satisfying for now. That's all I need to know. Without one, it'll be tough.
...Al Cassaro - Silicon Investor 5/28
Some further elaboration on the joint venture - Executive Branch TV. What events are likely to be covered? When does Ed Bramson anticipate roll out? Any plans, if Executive TV is successful, for similar coverage of Congress?
...Sleeper - Silicon Investor 6/1
In that Internet II is about to come upon us in the near future and looking at this link, I see a bunch of well known names already involved. Where is Ampex and why is it not on this list? As the company always states that it was one of the first to help evolve the
Internet, why is it not there for Internet II? See:
internet2.edu
...john adriaan kolenberg - Silicon Investor 6/1
AFFILIATE OPERATIONS and RESULTS
As TVW grows are they remaining profitable?
...digger - Silicon Investor 5/29
What "rights" to "shows", ie "Sonny & Cher" does AENTV actually own if any?
...digger - Silicon Investor 5/29
Are TVW & AENTV keeping stats on hits to sites and is there any % change worth noting?
...digger - Silicon Investor 5/29
My main question at this point regards the business plan for AENTV. What is their source of revenue? Advertising?
...Carl R. - Silicon Investor May 29
Why the sudden change in plan concerning Reiter? They were to be the first Co. that AXC was going to exercise options on and now just an investment. What did Ampex think Reiter provided and now we no longer need or is it just delayed in order to get the streaming video sites (TVW & AEN) under AXC umbrella to raise funds for growth (possible/probable IPO).
...NosajTheWarriorKing - Yahoo! Finance 5/31
Are there plans to have AENTV and TVontheWeb work together or will they evolve separately?
...Chris Elsass - Silicon Investor 6/3
What is the status of the New York personnel and facility?
...Chris Elsass - Silicon Investor 6/3
How many subsidiaries does Ampex envision having?
...Chris Elsass - Silicon Investor 6/3
What is the time table for developing the overseas facilities?
...Chris Elsass - Silicon Investor 6/3
What is meant by: "Rudisill will be responsible for the web sites of the company's new internal Internet video channels based in New York and for the integration of all of the company's video web sites including those of its existing affiliates TVontheWEB and Alternative Entertainment NetworkTV. " What do they mean by integration?
...baycaney - Yahoo! Finance - 6/3
What is the synergy between the new Internet divisions and Ampex Data and Micronet?
...Hugh D. Phillips - Silicon Investor 6/3
TVW may have 20 channels and others on the way but some of them are dead with no new programming in some time. For example Business Uncut promised a new show every week but there hasn't been one since 3/15/99. Will there be an effort to get the sponsors to get new programming as promised? Will you drop dead channels because it
diminish's your reputation?
...Hugh D. Phillips - Silicon Investor 6/3
Will the "new" Internet Video Group enterprise of Ampex have the facility of mobile, remote units ? Or will your video facilities be only in house; that is studio ? What is the cost of the initial setup of your production facilities ? And will AENTV share them with
or incorporate with TVW ? How soon will profits be realized after the official launch?
...df - Silicon Investor 6/5
ROYALTIES and RELATED
Is Ampex Data Systems receiving any royalties from digital cameras?
...digger - Silicon Investor 5/29
Does Ampex feel royalties will grow from here?
...digger - Silicon Investor 5/29
U.S. Patent Number 843565, entitled, "Particulate magnetic medium utilizing keeper technology and methods of manufacture" clearly states that "the flexible, particulate magnetic media may be used in tape or flexible disc formats." Recent advances to quadruple the density of DST devices were apparently realized by changes in the read/write head design. What further magnitude of density gains could be expected if
keepered flexible media were used on a DST device? If practical, could this technology be licensed to other digital tape storage device manufacturers?
...Glenn Perry - Silicon Investor 6/2
******** NEW QUESTION ********
Question: DVD seems to be the hot off-line video technology for the next year. Does Ampex have any proprietary DVD technology from which they derive royalties?
...Michael Olds - Silicon Investor 6/10
CORE BUSINESS COMPETITION
How can AXC compete for content with broadcast networks that have in some cases been in existence for over 50 years?
...JoCo - Silicon Investor 5/29
Can AXC provide any value added to archived network content by digitizing?
...JoCo - Silicon Investor 5/29
As is indicated by the LA and NY Ampex sites currently under development, what is the Ampex Corporate Production and Distribution strategy? While references in Ampex announcements and news-releases have indirectly compared this effort to that of TVW and AENTV, what does this initiative really mean in terms of an Ampex specific
strategy?
...B. A. Marlow - Silicon Investor May 31
Given the Ampex West Coast production facility's proximity to the wealth of talent in the movie industry, and the intended relocation of AENTV to that facility, it appears that emphasis on that facility's operation will slanted towards that wealth of resources / talent. No such inkling thus far for the east coast facility. Will the East Coast & West Coast production facilities have separate mandates or emphasis, or will there be overlapping emphasis for these two facilities?
...DrD - Silicon Investor 6/1
Would you also explain "Ampex's strategy is to use its technological expertise to increase the content and quality of Internet video." What can and will Ampex do with Internet video that others can not or have not done?
...Chris Elsass - Silicon Investor 6/3
If AXC reveals a new way to stream commercial advertising, are any of our (AXC's) patents involved (someone noted possibly PIP picture in picture)? If not, will all streaming media companies be able to duplicate us without licensing the technology?
...NosajTheWarriorKing - Yahoo! Finance 6/3
AT&T spun off Lucent Technologies (former Western Electric), because potential customers of Lucent were competitors of AT&T, and therefore reluctant to buy their products. Ampex is now in a similar situation--where many of their potential customers will be/are competitors in the Streaming Video market. Have you, or would you, give any consideration to divesting DataSystems in an IPO, or even a private sale?
...curiouswalker - Yahoo! Finance 6/4
Three questions adapted from Investors Business Daily issue dated 6/7
First, what's the Web company's unique value to customers? What's its profit model?
Secondly, how will it make money on its oldest customers? Take Amazon - it loses money in acquiring new customers. On the customers it acquired in 1996, it's making a ton of money. Gaining 6 million new customers a year overshadows profits with customer-acquisition costs. And thirdly, what protects the Net company's profits from customer power (the ability for customers to easily search for lower prices from other vendors)?
...Thomas Kirwin - Silicon Investor 6/5
******** NEW QUESTION ********
Although we are in the infancy of narrowcasting, the quantity of channels being established by TVW certainly implies a future of picture perfect quality. What does Ampex company see re: the delivery vehicle for full screen clear video and stereo quality audio?
...bootsup1 - Yahoo! Finance 6/12
NEW INITIATIVES
Is Ampex working in the direction of development, acquisition, licensing or utilization of existing AMPEX technology for a video and/or internet video search engine? For example, Search FasTV.com has one for a video news, information and entertainment search engine.
See: fastv.com
...Tom Kirwin - Silicon Investor May30
Wouldn't it be in Ampex's. TVoW's, AENTV's interest and any of the new channels soon to be put on the web by Ampex and it affiliates, to be on all known video viewers and or tv video card slots or hdtv cards and all new ones that come out in the future, instead of just staying with RealNetworks and Microsoft media viewer?
...john adriaan kolenberg - Silicon Investor May 31
Is Ampex looking into developing / buying a video viewer and improving it with Ampex technology? For example the up and coming video viewer done by tranz-send combines server software and a special PC player device. See:
wired.com
tranz-send.com
...john adriaan kolenberg - Silicon Investor May 31
Would you please explain the comment that "we are positioning ourselves to expand the range, content and quality of our offerings in line with future increases in the availability of high-speed Internet access." Specifically what does range, content and quality refer to?
...Chris Elsass - Silicon Investor 6/3
Some say a couple of $billion worth of e-business is being conducted from adult web sites, i.e. selling porn. My question: are the Ampex affiliates going to stay out of this potentially lucrative market in order to cultivate a certain businesslike image, i.e. not do any narrowcasting or other -casting of adult entertainment? Or is a channel with AMple Presentation of EXtremities not categorically excluded?
...Scott Pedigo - Silicon Investor 6/2
What are your plans for DST beyond broadcasting? Are Internet and enterprise storage solutions in the picture?
...Hugh D, Phillips - Silicon Investor 6/3
Will you marry up Micronet and Ampex Data to give a complete storage system for the Internet and enterprise storage. If so what are your marketing plans? When will the new channels on TVW be rolled out?
...Hugh D, Phillips - Silicon Investor 6/3
How many Internet sites are you planning and what is the time frame?
...Hugh D, Phillips - Silicon Investor 6/3
Many of us originally thought Ampex was entering the Internet arena via Reiter as way to enter the Internet Data Backup market. We felt this was a terrific self-serving idea, which would put the incredible DST storage capabilities into the hands of the masses. Since that time we have seen IBM enter the Backup market, discovered companies such as WWW.BACKUP.COM, and others. Except for a brief mention of Data Backup in Malta over the Fiber lines there, we have not seen any mention of Ampex getting into this potentially huge market, even though you have the very best equipment for the job. Are you (or Ampex Data Systems) planning any strategies along the lines of Internet Data Backup Services?
...curiouswalker - Yahoo! Finance 6/2
From the 96 Ampex Annual Report: "...AXC does not want to be known only as Keeper Technology company...we have other technologies...". You have kept us in suspense for 3 years now, Shame the devil, tell the truth...what are those technologies?
...Swamp Fox Charlie - Silicon Investor 6/4
******** NEW QUESTION ********
Any plans to buy cash starved companies with a great product? A good example is mPhase symbol XDSL. They make an improved DSL device which has been tested in Hartwell GA. with 1000 subscribers delivering internet service at 6.2 MPS downstream and 1 MPS upstream. Also 199 Mpeg-2 TV channels! Plans to upgrade to 400 channels. They need cash! With cash they may be able to make a deal with Bell South!
...Hugh D, Phillips - Silicon Investor 6/9
******** NEW QUESTION ********
Does Ampex plan to support multiple video players, and if so would it include Real, Quick-Time, Emblaze, or Microsoft? Does Ampex expect to establish a broader relationship with the developers of any of these players. Will Ampex technology be used in any of these players?
...Carl R. - Silicon Investor 6/9
LEGAL MATTERS and SETTLEMENTS
Regarding details of the Mitsubishi settlement. While not related to the operational aspects of the Internet strategy, it can be argued that it is a funding source. I haven't seen any evidence that this question was asked at the annual meeting (hope I'm wrong on this).
...JoCo - Silicon Investor 5/29
SHAREHOLDER SPECIFIC
One of the first questions that comes to my mind is actually a request of Ampex HQ to grant participation of any IPO's that may arise to be offered on favorable "insider" terms to long term shareholders.
...digger - Silicon Investor 5/29
******** NEW QUESTION ********
What is the status of the $4 convertibles? Have they all been converted? If not, can you estimate how many of them remain as possible additions to the float?
...RidgeRunner (Doug Schott) - Silicon Investor 6/9
GENERAL and MISCELLANEOUS
How was the banana bread at the June 28 Annual meeting?
...Hal Campbell - Silicon Investor 5/28
What is his price target for when he will consider selling some of his AXC holdings?
...digger - Silicon Investor 5/29
Will there be a company sponsored field trip to Malta for the grand opening of TVW Europe?
...digger - Silicon Investor 5/29
Footnotes:
This compilation is under development and can change. Any suggestions are encouraged.
The more clearly you present your question, the more closely it can be represented.
So far, flickerful, Ed Perry and B.A. Marlow are contributing to this effort. Other volunteers are welcome to take one step forward.
For the purpose of getting their early response, we are e-mailing a pre-view of this list to Karen and Dave. Gardy.
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