Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Creative Labs (CREAF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (6680)	12/6/1997 10:58:00 PM
From: Rutgers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13925

Wake the kids, call the neighbors: Great News Regarding Creative's PCDVD Sell-Through Figures Encouraging for DVD; Computer Retail Week Friday, December 05, 1997 at 22:46 (Published on Monday, December 08, 1997 at 00:00) by Roger C. Lanctot New York-The latest DVD sales reports paint a bright picture this holiday season for the laggard technology. Research company PC Data, Reston, Va., reported last week that PCs with DVD-ROM drives captured 6 percent of retail system revenues in October. At the same time, Creative Labs' DVD Encore DX2 upgrade kits sold more in the month of October than all of Creative's total DVD-ROM upgrade kit sales for the seven preceding months combined, according to PC Data. Shipments of DVD players have been averaging more than 20,000 units per month, according to data supplied by the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association. And movie sales are climbing at an impressive clip, with 69,000 units sold in the week ended Nov. 23. That moved the total sales figure to nearly 1 million units since March, according to retail point-of-sale data from Westlake Village, Calif.-based VideoScan, representing 14,000 retail locations. And, in a boost to the software side, DVD movies were introduced at Computer City SuperCenters last month in a display marketed by DVD-ROM drive maker Hi-Val. CompUSA is expected to sign on to the program before year-end, sources said. CompUSA recently advertised a DVD player for the first time in its bi-weekly circular. The growing interest comes despite a dearth of DVD-ROM software. As of last week, only two DVD-ROM titles were available for retail distribution: DeLorme's AAA Map 'n' Go and Multicom's Warren Miller Ski World. But the dam appears ready to burst. Microsoft announced the availability of Encarta on DVD-ROM late last week and The Learning Company began shipping three titles: Genius at Edison, Connections and Battles of the World. And Xiphias has begun shipping Encyclopedia Electronica. "There's a lot of product hitting the market right after Christmas," said John Viscott of DVDExpress, an Internet-based reseller of DVD movies and software. "It's only a matter of time now." On the hardware side, PCs with integrated DVD-ROM drives accounted for 2.8 percent of retail unit PC sales in October, but 5.8 percent of revenue, according to PC Data. Data from La Jolla, Calif.-based Computer Intelligence's StoreBoard sales survey show Compaq and Hewlett-Packard dominate the market with more than 40 percent of unit sales share apiece. "People buying PCs with DVD drives are buying insurance," said Chuck Cebuhar, divisional vice president and general manager for Sears' consumer electronics department. Still, DVD misfires abound. CompUSA advertised Access Software's first DVD title, Tex Murphy: Overseer, last week even though the product is not expected to ship until January. The Hi-Val software rack appeared at Computer City with a note of disappointment: A visit to a New York-area Computer City store last week found the Hi-Val display in place with the 24 movies in stock, but there were no DVD-ROM software titles and no signs explaining the display. And, while the presence of the display suggests that Computer City expects to sell DVD players, the company declined to comment on any such plans. CompUSA is expected to bring the Hi-Val display in before Christmas, although the company declined to comment on its plans to sell movies. Doug, real nice job on your recent posts - keep up the great work - I just received my annual report today - so I will look at it soon. As far as the ML speculation goes, as far as I know, ML is still the number one institutional holder and CREAF is the number one holding in the ML Tech Fund.

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (6680)	12/6/1997 11:30:00 PM
From: Dennis G.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13925

It seems that a number of people here have remarked that the slide this week was ML's fault and it was them that dumped the stock. Where is this information? I haven't seen any info to confirm that and I think it's somewhat inappropriate and unfair to assume that without the facts. I have a ML account and if it was them, I would be quite unhappy. ML is still quite bullish on the stock and only dropped their numbers a little bit. They still have a buy out on it and a price target of 30. And they came out with this earnings adjustment on Wednesday morning, well after the major damage had been done. My broker told me that the lastest info he had said that as of the end of October, the ML Tech fund had 25% of their assets in CREAF. I looked at their performance this week and they took about a 10% beating. Considering CREAF's 25% haircut, this kind of setback would indicate that they still are holding. But of course it's not necessarily true. I don't know yet. If I was going to hazard a guess as to who sold, it would be Vinik. This kind of rapid, massive dumping is something that he's known for. But I think it would be better if to get all the facts before we pin the blame on anyone. Dennis