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Technology Stocks : General Magic -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: micny who wrote (7264)	11/11/1999 3:58:00 PM
From: dgurgel	Respond to of 10081

Enjoyed following your comments and John's. You have to probe pretty deeply into GMGC, including using the product, before you can find reason to forgive past mistakes. (Forgiveness can't be expected at all from any poor soul in this since the IPO in 1995.) I think General Magic's present product is like salt. Not much good by itself (as pure unallied Portico), but very good on telco popcorn, Excite chips, and General Motors steak. On the need for Markman to be a great technical businessman - you of course know of his great technical background, so the technical part is there, if not the business sense (as required for the CEO). The entire management team profiled on the site, generalmagic.com, looks like a baby bell. They all look pretty solid, not likely to con us.

To: micny who wrote (7264)	11/11/1999 4:26:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 10081

I think what John is trying to tell you is he doesn't like to have discussion of anything that is not positive. He's perhaps thinking that talking about repeated failure of the company to capitalize on...., well anything, is not material to the current situation. He thinks the next agreement will replace the last. That any reason why the previous things failed is the fault of the other companies. Ultimately, he feels General Magic is the most misunderstood company. Analysts miss the point. Shareholders miss the point. Partners miss the point. And worst of all, those dirty bastard convertible shareholders have missed the point and they keep pulling the company down. Why do these people not convert and keep their shares? Why don't they realize they could make much more money if they let the stock rise and go to the glory this company deserves? Yes, this is a very misunderstood company. And all your questions only cloud the issues. The fact is we really only need people to understand and then we'll all get rich, or at least get back some of our losses. So please, don't mess this up! Regards, Mark Warning. There is a mix of sarcasm and deep disappointment in this post. I am mostly disappointed in myself for not being better at seeing the future. I should have listened to a man who told me of the death spiral the first convertible deal would cause. I should have listened to my wife who was very disappointed when Portico couldn't pull up news on Cisco. Didn't matter how many times she said Cisco, the machine just couldn't get it. In fact, there are 2, Cisco and Sysco. More important though have been the failed promises. They told us that they could interface to corporate data bases, and that included projects with SAP. They couldn't in fact because they have never found a secure channel to use. The biggest failure for me is the Board of Directors who should have been more able to prepare GM for Telco lack of interest. These people should have told them the product was not good enough for whatever reason. Now, the company is late to market with a product that is being repeated by many look alikes. But worse than that, there is a graphic based system quickly falling in place based on the WAP Forum, which will supercede the need of IVR. Let's face it, I don't want e-mail read to me by a computer. I want to read it myself. If I can get that, no way will I want GM. Maybe GM could be enfolded into a WAP system and that would give them some value, but as a stand-alone product it's not apparently good enough if you judge the markets response. Also note that Motorola held back on Mysphere, another Nuance based IVR system, also using Starfish (which they acquired) PIM. This has now been integrated into a WAP browser from Phone.com and will allow people to get the best of graphic and IVR. So, where does that leave GMGC? Well, they've entered now into an agreement with the great innovator in technology GM. Wow, what a dynamic partner. Well, it's better than nothing and it's a good thing, but it would be more important to see some of the old work bare fruit. The company continues getting less than $500,000 per quarter in earnings. They would make more money with their number of employees doing a cleaning service. Well, many won't like this post. It's not very positive. I would love nothing more than to be proved wrong. I tried to sell 1/3 of my position yesterday, but set a limit at $3. Should have taken 2 7/8's or whatever they would give. There is no faith to ultimately support a gain until GM can resolve the lack of faith people have in their ability to execute.

To: micny who wrote (7264)	11/11/1999 5:58:00 PM
From: Seconds Out	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10081

I think Dr. Markman has a prediction of how revenues are going to be generated, and I am sure projections have been made. It is just that we are not being told about them. I would guess the Board is. I agree that management has made errors in the past. I think that we are still paying the price from the bungled Portico launch both in the opportunity cost of the progress the company could have made pursuing other courses of action and in the company's need for additional funding (dilution and abundance of stock supply as being witnessed the last two days, imho). We are also paying the price of inaction caused by others. Dr.Markman stated clearly that GMGC is ready for deployment of Intuit. Intuit has a new CEO, which could have caused revised thinking. Intuit may not be willing to pay GMGC enough for its service compared to what GMGC is asking. Maybe GMGC is making a conscious decision to allocate its NOC and resources to better paying deals. We won't know that until they happen. But I am willing to "keep my eyes and ears open" per the Conference Call to see what happens over the next few months.Additionally, Wireless Knowledge and Qwest delays cannot be blamed on GMGC,imho. Most importantly, I believe that management has taken sensible steps this year to move the company in the right direction. MyTalk is a good start. I like the Excite deal and its potential for expanded services. The reorganization was a good move as well. Management has made the decision not to announce any alliances any more until they are done deals like GM and Excite. No more teasers that get delayed. I think it is a good move. New advertising firm. New IR and CFO personnel both a positive. If the stock was a $3.50 today I believe we would not be having this discussion. But I also believe that a big part of the reason we are at $2 1/8 is the Conversions. Big price to be paying, I acknowledge. Imho, they pushed the price down to $1.50, got millions of extra shares during the reset period. Announced right after on the S-3 that they were offering shares, and now they are acting on it. They aren't long term investors with most of their shares. They are making a quick killing on their investment and cashing out the majority of their shares to go do another sweetheart deal somewhere else. That is the business they are in. I cannot argue with the frustration level. I cannot deny that we have paid a big price for the Preferred financing and delays to market. But I do believe that management has demonstrated an ability to make moves as this year has progressed to take the company finally from the R&D stage they inherited to an actual service and technology provider which has enormous potential as the very new markets in which they are involved (as leaders,imho) begin to mature. Seconds Out.