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Technology Stocks : Applied Magnetics Corp -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jonathan Bird who wrote (10384)	11/17/1997 6:24:00 PM
From: Sawtooth	Respond to of 12298

Jon: <<By the way, if you guys, like T.G.W, disagree with my opinions don't be worried. I'm not voicing them cause im so sure about them. It because I want to bounce them off other people to double check myself, and to study the reaction and hear others POV. I want to learn stuff just like everybody else. Together we can prevent duplicating our efforts.>> The type of interchange about why people like or don't like a particular stock, such as you and Greg have going, is the most useful type of info on SI, IMO. The rah-rah's and bashing for the sake of bashing are useless. The general co. news I can get easily as it hits. It's the personal and respectful exchanges that I enjoy. (O.K., throw in a good spirited flame now and then to keep a smile going when times get tense!) Thanks. Whether or not I agree with your, or Greg's, or anybody else's opinion doesn't have value to me; it's the "thought(s) that counts", if you'll excuse my abuse of that sentimental phrase. Thanks, again. ...Tim ; )

To: Jonathan Bird who wrote (10384)	11/17/1997 6:47:00 PM
From: EyeDrMike	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 12298

another great post Jon. Excerpts from the Motley Fool "Investment Opinon" and my comments follow: Disk drive investors who thought they might catch a break today were disappointed. A profit warning from Read-Rite (Nasdaq: RDRT), an all-out mashing of Read-Rite competitor Applied Magnetics (NYSE: APM) in Barron's, a product transition at IBM (NYSE: IBM), and a whole mess of downgrades from analysts on Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) and Seagate (NYSE: SEG) gave investors an overall down day for the entire cluster of drive and drive-component makers. Investors struggled to digest the sudden overflow of information, rooting through all of the contradictory information spewing out of the business media. The sudden, unexpected fall in drive prices has forced Western Digital to transition faster than expected to magnetoresistive (MR) heads from thin-film inductive heads. This means Western Digital's main supplier of drive heads, Read-Rite, has to do the same. Although in hindsight many are accusing both companies of being behind the technology curve, it is really this sudden price drop that upset the apple cart. If a PC manufacturer could get the same or better price performance out of a thin-film inductive head because of higher yields and precision production, there was no real advantage to one over the other. With prices rapidly falling, thin-film inductive has lost any cost-efficiency almost overnight. Unfortunately for Western Digital, Quantum (Nasdaq: QNTM) has already bought a good deal of the existing worldwide capacity for MR heads from TDK and Yamaha. With Read-Rite having difficulties in the transition and Applied Magnetics even farther behind, Western Digital's reliance on outside suppliers as opposed to the vertically-integrated, make-it-yourself models used by Seagate and IBM is now unfortunately going against it. As prices drop and make thin-film inductive less appealing on a cost-basis, without a firm supply Western Digital has become the odd man out in the drive industry. my thoughts: My impression here is that if the supply of MR heads has been effectively bought out by QNTM, WDC is going to have difficulty meeting demand, and RDRT can get a premium for the MR heads they produce; unfortunately for APM, they're left out in the cold with the inability to produce MR heads in quantity. Mike

To: Jonathan Bird who wrote (10384)	11/17/1997 7:01:00 PM
From: john p. carney	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12298

Jon, I pretty much agree with all your comments about APM except one. APM isn't really that great a short candidate now because the amount of short interest already in the stock from the debenture holders seems like it's getting covered near the conversion price. I think if it wasn't for this huge amount of shorts slowly covering though, APM would be in single digits now. John