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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (31439)	9/21/2009 8:54:31 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 46821

Hi Maurice, Not for the usual reasons that one would disclose affiliations or investments in companies being discussed during debates such as this one, but instead to help me better understand the particulars of your interests in Vector, would you kindly describe what the company does in terms of its core mission activities in the context of this discussion? I ask this question because, if my inference is accurate, i.e., that Vector's primary role here is as a physical-layer infrastructure play, I'd be more inclined to align with some of your thinking. If, on the other hand, the company was merely leveraging its investments in the pipe, then less so. While I'm not well-versed in the particulars of NZ, my curiosity stems from an unavoidable tendency to compare what you've stated to conditions in the US, where more diversity exists in the number and types of actors currently providing transmission services over fiber, as well as those whose more lucrative activities include integrated services that are tightly coupled to underlying infrastructure. As one who does not invest in technology stocks I don't have the same biases as you, obviously... but my dozen or so years in management at two incumbent carriers (which has left a hairline from the helmet I wore that still shows through on humid days), I understand the sense of 'violation' that naturally arises when one's investments (in either or both time and money) are threatened by outside forces. None of this necessarily means that the nature of the item invested has unqualified merit, but merely recognizes the natural inclination to be attached to, or entrenched, in it. Think: the diametric opposite side of where cargo cult thinking lives. FAC ------

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (31439)	9/21/2009 9:39:59 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 46821

Clarification, in bold, from my preceding #msg-25958621: If, on the other hand, the company was merely leveraging its investments in the pipe for the purpose of holding end users captive to its own lineup of content and telecomms services, then less so. My point here being that pure infrastructure plays (Layer 1, namely, such as fiber installers) might be held to a different level of scrutiny than their vertically integrated counterparts who have absolute control over end-users' choices, which often means no choice at all. ------