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Technology Stocks : The New QLogic (ANCR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Eleder2020 who wrote (25092)12/7/1999 6:47:00 PM
From: Bob Frasca  Respond to of 29386
 
Doing my bit in defense of the baby. This is what I posted on Herbie's message board. I actually sent part of this as an e-mail to him awhile back but he never responded. I decided to update it and send it again. I doubt he'll respond this time either...

You continuously claim that, when it comes to Ancor Communications, you are simply "raising questions and pointing out risks related to fundamentals". The fact is, you've never discussed the fundamentals of this company in any of your articles. Let's address the highlights:

1. You took a cocktail party conversation out of context (second hand conversation by the way) and implied that there was a chance that their earnings might be suspect. Wrong on both counts.

2. Implied that their was something sinister about shipping a product before it was formally announced. This is so ludicrous as to defy belief. I recommend that you randomly check high tech hardware company new product press releases. You'll find an awful lot of companies who state that their new product is currently shipping.

3. Questioned their revenue recognition policies. Imagine, recognizing revenue when the product was shipped. How novel. Yet no comment at all about the competitions rather questionable policy of recognizing revenue when the OEM ships. Sounds to me like the competition is shipping product on consignment. Perhaps they don't want to itemize product returns on their balance sheet. Do you think that McDonald's recognizes revenue when you actually eat the Big Mac or when they put the pallet on the truck to ship it to your local privately owned franchise?

4. This is one of my personal favorites. Your implication that management made some sort of gaff by announcing their new switches the day before the FCTC opened while indicating in their release that the event had already begun. I'm sure that you realize that many companies, (including the competition, in this case, though you didn't mention them) make significant announcements on the day prior to a big event in order to generate a little pre-event buzz at the cocktail parties, golf tournaments etc., that frequently precede events of this magnitude.

5. Finally, today you intimate that accepting an investment from Intel, let me say that again, INTEL, is somehow a bad thing. Oh I know you said it was a good thing from a "stock-spinning point of view" but the intimation was clear.

Your other arguments are equally silly. Ancor has always acknowledged being late to the SAN niche of the FC switch market. You conveniently forget that they were actually the FIRST company that took a fibre channel switch to market.

As for the deal with Intel, the fact that their investment is one of many is irrelevant. The fact that Intel got a deal on the shares is also irrelevant. After all, they are Intel and the discount was not that significant compared to yesterday's closing price or their 50 day moving average. As for the deal not being exclusive. So what. The only other significant competition supposedly passed on the deal. (If you believe that, I've got a bridge for sale.) Sounding a lot more exclusive the more I think about it.

The remarks from Brocade were amusing. Do you really think that the list of players, a veritable who's who in computing, would waste their time on a technology that won't go to market? Does the expression "sour grapes" mean anything to you?

Perhaps you should consider an article about the remarkable turn around the company has made in the last year or two and their bright future. I doubt you will though. You're in the business of finding fault and assigning blame. You should know that when you started questioning the ethics of the management of this company you made a grave mistake. Those of us who have been riding the roller coaster with this company the last few years know that this is one area that they are above reproach.



To: Eleder2020 who wrote (25092)12/7/1999 7:02:00 PM
From: Eleder2020  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 29386
 
Ken and Steve were great-Some guy heard me ask for a quote on Ancor and it turned out his broker knows the Ancor management really well - Ken and Steve went right up to them while Blue Circle and I were talking to these guys who finally told us about Intel and a second later came the intro's -
Ken basically outlined the deal 2 ways- First what interested Intel was the Ancor Asic and scalability requiremnet could best be handled by Ancor's architecture-
The second part of the deal was that Intel did feel that Ancor was a good financial investment and the price/share was picked at some point, because that was Ancor's price when they started or finished talking (Fuzzy on that one)
It is a VC type development deal but Ancor get's to keep, own sell and make any and all money made from Infinniband switches. I think alot of it is still sketchy to Ken as this relationship will evolve over time. Intel's interest is to get as many companies developing Infiniband products as quickly as possible and speed up deployment of Infiniband by about 18 months- Now we have to figure the other 20 companies Intel will be investing in.<G>
Ken assured all that the switches for Infiniband and FC are complementary and this is a pretty great opportunity for Ancor and admitted that there is not much he can answer about it because it is new territory for them but they were clearly elated.

Ken also said -REvs 4th quarter from SUN -Wouldn't say how much and couldn't read whether that is large or small -just REVs- Midwestern poker face-

Ramp for SUN begins 1st quarter and then starts vertical ascent 2nd quarter. (MY words and my intrepretation)

SUN is fine with added opportunities to expand product line with SUN- FOB-Friends of Brocade are still pushing the line that Ancor is a one product pony with SUN and that product might not exist, might not work and SUN might not go in that direction(pick one of the above when you talk to the Brocade crowd)Anyone will do -I swear I was talking to ar at the break - I'll leave the company name out.

You should thank Ken and the Gang for this amazing turnaround- Steve Snyder was a pleasure to talk with and I overheard him explaining the Shareholders plan as well as employee options to BCD -I told him it was a great move to lower the price of the options for the employees when the stock was in the toilet and he thanked us for the support over the years.

Later -Ancor presentation, Dataquest forecast(YIKES), SUN talks and carries a big switch too and why they don't like to answer question directly about Ancor but have great things to say about them anyway. Gilder, Gadzoox and a few others. Ken's starts presentationwith big announcement- His daughter had twins that morning-Place cracked up.



To: Eleder2020 who wrote (25092)12/7/1999 7:39:00 PM
From: George Dawson  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 29386
 
Ed,

Thanks for the report from SSB. It might be time for Ancor to do some chest pounding of their own. We can all get bent out of shape and respond endlessly to TSCM or other lame criticisms of the company. It might make some people feel better in the short run, but in the long run it is generally a waste of time.

I would like to see some fairly pointed remarks rather than responses to some of the points you raise in the post. We certainly have done our share of investigating and refuting the irrelevant criticisms over the years. Maybe it is time for Ancor to get into the act.

The reality is we don't make the switches and we can't promote (or defend) the company. I would post a few suggestions, but what is the point?

George D.



To: Eleder2020 who wrote (25092)12/8/1999 7:56:00 AM
From: LaVerne E. Olney  Respond to of 29386
 
Thanks to you and the others for the excellent conference notes.

<<Reyes did his usual chest beating routine -80% market share>>

I guess Reyes must be conceding 10% since his last public statements: "... we've got 90% of the available customer base ..."
twst.com

LOL