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Microcap & Penny Stocks : GENROCO: OTC:BB GRCI -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Savant who wrote (111)	4/5/2001 6:39:52 PM
From: riposte	Respond to of 124

The Next Storage Revolution There is hope for GRCI yet....there's no mention of GRCI, but they do play in the same sandbox (they're the real little kid, who keeps to himself in the corner) Steve *The Next Storage Revolution* Is the storage industry poised for revolution? There is little question that the market for storage technology and related services is growing at a phenomenal rate. Despite the recent pullback in the value of many storage-related stocks, the race to bring business information online continues unabated. Combine such insatiable demand with the continued decline in the raw cost of storage and you have some of the ingredients for an information systems explosion. To date, however, development in the storage industry has been relatively slow, steady, and evolutionary. It's included faster and wider buses, higher density and more reliable drives, better volume and file system management. These are, of course, all positive developments. What's slowed the development of storage technology? A lack of interoperability among storage vendors has been one problem. The vertically integrated nature of the industry has been another. Like the computer industry before the introduction of the PC and the networking industry prior to the widespread adoption of Internet Protocol, the storage industry has all of the characteristics of a vertically integrated industry dominated by a small number of large incumbent vendors. There are signs that the pace of innovation is accelerating within the storage systems arena. More than a few companies are poised to drive physical layer compatibility between switching and storage device vendors. Standardization work holds the promise of bringing interoperability. A real sense of urgency has been instilled throughout much of the storage industry as traditional and startup data networking companies strive to bring storage-awareness to the IP world through efforts such as iSCSI and FC-IP. There is little doubt that the worlds of data and storage networking are on a collision course and that the pace is quickening. A brief look at the history of data networking may shed light on the future course of storage networking. For example, proprietary technology, such as SNA from IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM - message board), formed the beginning of the data networking industry. Then came basic LAN connectivity. Ethernet followed, driving a new level of interoperability amongst vendors. Bridging and routing came next. Then came performance Layer 2 switching from companies like Kalpana, which was purchased by Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO - message board). The widespread adoption of IP as the protocol of choice allowed widespread interoperability and sparked a wave of higher-layer innovation that continues today. Layer 3 switching came later, spawning companies such as Extreme Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: EXTR - message board) and Foundry Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: FDRY - message board). Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR - message board) gave us silicon-based routing. Later, companies such as Redback Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: RBAK - message board), Shasta (bought by Nortel Networks Corp. [NYSE/Toronto: NT]), Alteon (Nortel), and Arrowpoint (Cisco) continued the trend by adding higher-layer application services to the data path. Many will remember that Cisco's router dominance was threatened in the early 90s by LAN switching. Cisco chose to aggressively embrace this new technology even though it threatened to cannibalize revenue in its core router business. It became a leader wherever IP standards advanced, becoming a market leader in both markets. This strategy stands in stark contrast to many former data networking leaders -- Vitalink, IBM, Novell, to name a few -- which failed to aggressively embrace disruptive technology. Similar pieces appear to be falling into place for the next stage of storage networking growth, as standards emerge. We find this sector moving toward horizontal integration and compatible components. Customers will rejoice as the pace of innovation quickens and they slide down the price/performance curve, enjoying the greater manageability of their systems along the way. Jim Goetz is a partner at Accel Partners, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based venture capital firm. Prior to joining Accel in March 2000, Jim was Vice President and General Manager of the VitalSoft division at Lucent. Disclosure: Arrowpoint, Foundry, Redback, and Veritas are Accel portfolio companies. lightreading.com

To: Savant who wrote (111)	4/11/2001 8:28:12 AM
From: riposte	Respond to of 124

Storage-Over-IP Venture Raises $50 Million Some of this interest has got to rub off on GRCI! Systems And Storage Vendors Among Nishan's Investors (URL: crn.com By Joseph F. Kovar CRN San Jose, Calif. 7:55 PM EST Mon., Sept. 18, 2000 A group of storage and systems vendors bet on an as-yet untried concept,storage over IP,with a $50 million investment in Nishan Systems, San Jose, Calif. Meanwhile, a number of venture funds invested $36 million in StorageWay Inc., a Fremont, Calif. based storage service provider. Among the investors in the third round of financing in Nishan were Sun Microsystems, Dell Ventures, Siemens AG's Siemens Venture Capital and Quantum Corp's Quantum Technology Ventures, company officials say. Nishan, founded in 1998, is developing technology aimed at building end-to-end storage networking solutions based on IP and Gigabit Ethernet, and expects to announce its first products by year-end, says Randy Fardal, vice president of marketing for the company. Nishan, which Fardal says means "on target" or "right on the mark" in the Urdu language, received $40 million in two previous rounds of funding, making the total to date $90 million. "We're hiring like crazy, doing distribution and technology deals, and we have a long list of new projects to fund," he says. Fardal says a number of other storage, networking and systems vendors also participated in the deal, but for various reasons did not want to disclose their participation at this time. There were more undisclosed participants than disclosed participants, he says. One of the undisclosed participates is a Fibre Channel vendor that wants to ship a product before disclosing its investment, and another is planning to do a larger, joint announcement with Nishan later this year, he says. In an earlier storage-over-IP deal, Cisco Systems Inc. in July acquired startup NuSpeed Internet Systems, Maple Grove, Minn. for $450 million, and made that company the core of its storage business. NuSpeed is developing technology to combine Internet routing intelligence with SANs in an effort to allow direct access to storage via the IP protocol. Cisco's acquisition of NuSpeed was terrific news, Fardal says. "It means IP storage is getting a lot of attention," he says. "This helps get standards moving." Meanwhile, StorageWay on Monday received $38 million in venture capital, bringing the company's total venture funding to $48 million, the company says. The company also raised $56 million in debt financing. StorageWay plans to use the funds to develop its outsourced storage and backup services. It has deployed storage data centers in ten co-location sites in the U.S., and plans to have 35 sites worldwide by early next year. crn.com

To: Savant who wrote (111)	5/1/2001 7:44:13 AM
From: riposte	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 124

VIDEOPROPULSION AND GENROCO IN DISCUSSIONS TO RE-MERGE Reassembled Firm Anticipates Focus on "Glass to Glass" Digi- tal Video SLINGER, Wisconsin, May 1, 2001 - VideoPropulsion, Inc. (OTC BB: "VDOP"), which was spun off from GENROCO, Inc. (OTC BB: "GRCI") ten months ago, has begun negotiations to merge with its former parent subject to approval by shareholders, finalization of an agreement endorsed by each of the boards, and completion of filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The surviving company is expected to take on the VideoPropulsion name and stock symbol, and focus its efforts on providing hardware and software products for the emerging interactive television and high definition digital video image processing market. Subject to board approval, Barbara R. Pick is expected to remain President and Chief Executive Officer of VideoPropul- sion. Carl A. Pick, who has been President of GENROCO and Chairman of the Board of both organizations, is expected to continue as Chairman of VideoPropulsion, once affirmed by the board. "The combined resources and infrastructure of the two smaller firms will assist VideoPropulsion attempting to seek a leadership role in the deployment of interactive digital TV content and delivery," exclaims Barbara Pick. "We antic- ipate offering unique and powerful 'glass to glass' solu- tions involving moving video from the glass of the movie camera lens to the glass of television screen." GENROCO has been a producer of high performance storage and networking products for nearly 27 years. Recently, the Com- pany demonstrated record TCP/IP network performance on a variety of open system UNIX platforms. In 1995, the Company undertook a custom development project to produce a Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) interface for a Fortune 500 computer manufacturer. This led to the beginning of a DVB product line, the evolution of digital video to divisional status, the creation of the VideoPropulsion subsidiary, and its ultimate spin-off as a separate public company in June 2000. "When we decided to spawn an autonomous digital video busi- ness from our traditional networking core last year, we felt that two independently focused entities would have better opportunities to attract capital and talent for growth," Carl Pick remarks. "As it has turned out, under the current market conditions, the two smaller companies have had a more difficult time reaching critical mass than a single one probably will now. Additionally, interactive TV is closer to being a significant commercial market than we had expected it would be by this time. Our collective manage- ment believes that reuniting the companies and reinventing one enterprise dedicated to high bandwidth solutions con- necting people to digital video content is the right path to follow." The business consolidation and name change require board and shareholder approval, necessitating various filings. To date, the boards of both companies have only agreed to the transaction in principle. VideoPropulsion showcased its "Tools for iTV" at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas April 23-26 along with its strategic partners Sun, Philips, Agency.com, Strategy & Technology, and Mindport. The Company expects to continue to offer high bandwidth networking prod- ucts under the "GENROCO" brand name. About VideoPropulsion VideoPropulsion, Inc. provides broadband access tools for delivering interactive applications over digital television networks and for UNIX systems. VPI's "Tools for iTV" are open standards hardware and software products created by high performance networking experts and optimized for digi- tal video transport. By offering cross-platform support for its technology, the Company is able to deliver unique prod- ucts for this market. VideoPropulsion's strategic partners include Sun Microsystems, SGI, Fujitsu, Philips, Compaq, Lysis, Mindport MCT, Scientific-Atlanta, and other major digital video server and applications suppliers. Learn more about VideoPropulsion on the web at: videopropulsion.com. This release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations that involve a number of risks that could cause actual results to differ materially. Information on the factors that might affect the financial results of VideoPropulsion, Inc. and GENROCO, Inc. can be found in the companies' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commis- sion (SEC). Contact: Don Woelz, VP of Sales & Marketing GENROCO, Inc. don@genroco.com 262-644-2505