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Technology Stocks : Opticom ASA (OPC - Norway) Data Storage of the future!? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jimmie Landerman who wrote (71)	1/18/2000 4:24:00 PM
From: cherzeca1	Respond to of 84

New to the board, old-time OPC investor. Jimmie, I especially enjoy your hard work and analysis. As a US-based investor, I am especially interested in obtaining as much current news and investment analysis about TFT as possible. Basically, all I can get now is news off the Opticom website and by using Fast's alltheweb. As for Fast, it is easier to get investment information...and while I believe there is still much upside left for Fast, the big news (we hope) is with Opticoms' TFT. By way of a short introduction, I invested in Opticom's predecessor in 1992 and have lived with its growing pains until it separated from its predecessor (International Digital Technologies, OTC in Norway). I have always been somewhat suspect of Opticom's technology, since at the outset when I made my investment, I was more impressed with the scientists (Harald Martens in particular) who stayed with IDT (which by the way, is changing its name to DynaPel) than those scientists (Gude Gudesen for example) who went to Opticom. My fears increased somewhat when Opticom ditched their microlens methodology, about two years ago. (If you do a US patent search for Opticom, you will only come up with the microlens filing.) I sold enough of Opticom then (about half my original holding) to get all my original investment back. Yes when I look back at it, it hurts, although I know it was the right decision at the time. But I do believe that the future belongs as much to the nimble as to the smart, and Opticom seems to have been able to discover through its virtual laboratory network the best polymer technology available. It appears to me that Opticom is relying to some extent on the good work done at Penn State University's Thin Film Devices group under Dr. Jackson, who is on Opticom's advsiory board. See jerg.ee.psu.edu for their website. Any news re the following specific questions would be appreciated. What does the Intel joint venture cover? Is it exclusive to any party in any field of engagement? Is Intel a manufacturer or developer (In other words, does the joint venture itself assume that the Opticom technology is fully developed)? What are the financial terms? Fussel announced that they are looking to more deals this year, and he mentioned wireless telephones (WAP-enabled phones will need a lot of storage capacity) and digital cameras. Will Intel be the manufacturer of components for these deals? What happened to the Bell Labs joint venture? Did Opticom lose any market or technological position by working with Bell Labs for a while (I look at concluded joint ventures as opportunities for loss rather than gain--otherwise, why did the venture conclude)? Jimmie, in particular: I understand that these are questions that you may not have immediate answers to. But these are the questions that I would believe the Norwegian investment banks should be asking management as and when they do their research reports. If you can glean any answers to these questions as you get access to these reports (and as I assume they are in Norwegian, you are our lifeline here), I would be most appreciative. You may also want to check out the IDT website. see dynapel.com They have some motion detection technology that could be very commercially valuable. They need to get it working realtime, which management says can and will be done soon. When they do, you will be able to send video 5 frames per second over the internet (jerky motion) and have your playback device (PC, handheld etc.) play it back at 30 frames per second (TV quality). Big potential upside here too. Their current symbol is INDI (I expect it to change when they go to the DynaPle name). Good luck to all re Opticom. Chris Herzeca