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Technology Stocks : Vari-L (VARL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert Sheldon who wrote (1073)	7/20/1999 2:37:00 AM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2702

A few random finds from Vari-L's website. I'd forgotten their new board member is from Samsung and Motorola: DENVER, Colorado- Vari-L Company, Inc. (Nasdaq National Market- VARL), a leading provider of advanced components for the wireless telecommunications industry today announced Jae Shim, a wireless industry veteran with executive experience at Samsung and Motorola, and Derek L. Bailey, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Vari-L, have been nominated to the Company's Board of Directors. The new directors will be appointed to the Board upon their election at the Company's annual Meetings of Shareholders on June 18, 1999. From August 1992 to February 1999, Mr. Shim was the Senior Director of the Wireless Technology Center at Samsung Electronics America in San Jose, California, where he was responsible for overall operations, product research and development, and technical/product marketing for PCS products. Mr. Shim previously was a member of the Senior engineering Staff of the Cellular Products Group of Motorola, Inc., where he participated in advanced GSM digital cellular phone development. He received a BSEE from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1984. Re-reading the earnings' pre-announcement, I decided to look at Q2 '98 and Q1 '99 for y/y and sequential comparisons: DENVER, Colorado- Vari-L Company, Inc. (Nasdaq National Market-VARIL), a leading provider of advanced components for the wireless telecommunications industry, today announced the Company expects to set a new second quarter revenue record for the three-month period ended June 30, 1999. Dave Sherman, President and CEO, said "Second quarter revenue was strengthened by growing demand from traditional commercial customers and increased subscriber deliveries. Our strong customer orders for the second quarter also suggest that growing subscriber markets, our own expanding sales efforts and the superior quality of our patented products will drive continued growth through 1999 and into the future." The year ago's Q2: sec.gov $.12 on $4.33 million. Then Q1 1999: DENVER, Colorado- Vari-L Company, Inc. (Nasdaq National Market- VARL), a leading provider of advanced components for the wireless telecommunications industry, today announced record sales and earning for its fiscal 1999 first quarter ended march 31, 1999 First quarter net sales were up 31% to $5,313,000 compared with net sales of $4,045,000 in the first quarter of 1998. Net income increased 30% to $754,000 or 14 cents per basic and diluted share, versus a year ago net income of $579,000, or 11 cents per basic and diluted share. >>>> On IBES there's only one analyst covering and the estimate is for $.12. You mentioned VARL's being sole-source supplier to Ericsson. A year ago, they were named sole-source for Lucent's basestation deployment in Germany: varil.com Facts re: Lucent's DSP base station chips: lucent.com And recent DSP announcement: lucent.com "Lucent's new chip is further evidence why the company is the world's number one provider of DSPs for wireless base stations," said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, a DSP market research firm based in Tempe, Arizona. "The DSP16410 proves that Lucent is heavily committed to providing higher-performance, lower-power, and more compact solutions using its well-regarded DSP16000 architecture. Couple this broadening of the DSP16000 product portfolio with the company's focused and multi- faceted DSP initiative involving StarCore*, and Lucent clearly is attacking the communications DSP market on several different fronts." Do you have any indication what sort of revenues come from Lucent? I don't see them mentioned too often in conjunction with the company. I recognize Ericsson is the one we're looking at right now, but with LU's new DSP for wireless, I'm curious what the expectations are.

To: Robert Sheldon who wrote (1073)	7/20/1999 6:45:00 PM
From: JBruin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2702

Robert, I'm impressed with your knowledge of VARL & it's industry. Can you please offer the devil's advocate position? I'm long but there must be some reason for caution (aside from the microcap status/market overvaluation). Theoretically speaking whenever a company/industry has very high gross margins, without tremendous barriers to entry, there should be some looming competition. Right? I personally would use the Porter Model as a definition for competition, i.e. 1)Existence of substitute products 2)Barriers to entry 3)Availability of substitute products 4)Bargaining power of consumers 5)Bargaining power of suppliers I've read most of your posts but was hoping for some details in this area. Thank you for your help.