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Technology Stocks : DSS: DLT finally open for trading -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Z Analyzer who wrote (273)	6/23/2000 2:48:00 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 488

Nice volume yesterday, over 1.4 million shares, first time in a while. My guess is that it was the company buying a million or more shares. There is no follow through today, with less than 400,000 shares so far. In case anyone hadn't noticed, a fairly large number of options were exercised by company officers, without subsequent sales ( a couple hundred thousand. led in number by Michael Brown). Most of them were sold for pennies per share, which meant, e.g., Mr.Brown got over a hundred thousand shares for about a thousand dollars or so (don't recall the exact amount, and am still too steamed to look at it again). While I appreciate the fact that he/they didn't just flip them for an immediate profit, I still find the idea our ownership of the company is diluted in this way, even by such a relatively small amount. They could have bought the stock for at least, say, a 50 percent discount, and not a 99 percent discount, essentially free. I hope that the company didn't pay their taxes, due upon exercising the stock, or didn't give them an interest free loan to pay the taxes as well. My opinion (FWIW) is that they should pay at least something for the shares, so that they have some actual money at risk if the stock falls. Too often, far far too often, company execs point to the stock market in bull markets to show how "well" they have managed the company, and how they deserve huge bonuses and options, but in bear markets or when their stock tanks, even in bull markets, such posturing is (not so strangely) absent. End rant. I still hope that they get very very rich off of these somewhat obscene gifts. For the record, the company is sticking by its "summer" volume release of SDLT, or so their engineers say, with backward compatible version coming in late 00 (best guess). We'll just have to see. The stock prices of the three more or less "pure" tape drive companies (DSS, EXBT and STK) are all mired in quicksand, as are tape library companies like OVRL and ADIC (although the latter a little less so, but still well off their highs). At some point, I would think that they will come back into favor, despite what the chair of EMC thinks (see Gus's post of M. Rutteger's interview on the EMC thread). FWIW, I have bought some ADIC, at about 15, 13, and at 17. I expect a little more pullback in it before they release earnings in July, will buy it again at 14.5 or 15. I look for a better second half from them, as per their last CC, and expect some buying after this quarter is done, depending as always on general market conditions and their guidance in the CC. Best wishes, Sam