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Technology Stocks : Citrix Systems (CTXS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jhg_in_kc who wrote (6967)	9/12/1999 6:18:00 AM
From: Mike Buckley	Respond to of 9068

jhg, This is my take on the failure of Lotus's eSuite. You're right that it could indicate that there simply wasn't a market for the product. I think it's an indication, instead, that Lotus (a division of IBM) wasn't able to execute. Issue #1: IBM is immensely successful with their e-commerce services. Imagine being an IBM client and turning down their product while accepting their services. Not likely on a wide-scale basis. Issue #2: Lotus's office software suite has not been as successful as Microsoft's. That's not because there isn't a market for the product. It's because Lotus hasn't been able to execute as well. In that context, it's not a huge surprise that Lotus felt they could use those resources to better advantage elsewhere. Both issues support the idea in my mind that this is not a problem of market acceptance of the concept. Instead, the problem is that for whatever reason, Lotus wasn't able to execute. Why does the failure of Lotus create greater opportunity for Citrix? I believe the market will be huge for e-commerce software. I also believe Citrix is the delivery boy who delivers the software to the user's desk. Now that the conflict of having to recommend Lotus's solution is now eliminated, IBM's e-commerce services division will now have no problem recommending Citrix as the delivery boy. You also asked about the tornado metaphor. In gorilla-speak, the tornado is the phase of high-tech product adoption marked by hypergrowth. More important, it is the phase that produces gorillas. For more about gorillas, chimps, and monkeys, The Gorilla Game is a must-read for anyone investing in high-technology stocks. It was first published last year at this time. Just one year later, it has become so important to the high-tech investing community that it is already updated. The new version was on the shelves of the major online and offline retailers last week. --Mike Buckley