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Technology Stocks : S3 (A LONGER TERM PERSPECTIVE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Chavez who wrote (8943)	1/25/1998 3:38:00 PM
From: bob yahnke	Respond to of 14577

To all: Strong suggestion. Buy the Feb. 5 puts. It will give you all piece of mind. Good Luck.

To: Mark Chavez who wrote (8943)	1/25/1998 4:21:00 PM
From: Synapsid	Respond to of 14577

I think S3's main problem is the product mix. Practically every low-end PC from major OEMs has the Trio64V2 chip, which is very low margin. The only market for the slightly higher margin ViRGE products is Asian add-in card manufacturers (which export to Europe and the US, serving non-brand name system resellers). There have been signs that this market is (in S3's own words) saturated, presumably resulting in excess inventories of ViRGE products. Also added "3D" value in these add-in cards may increasingly move towards higher performing non-S3 chipsets (such as 3DLabs, although S3 has little competition in the lowish end in Asia at the moment) as well as being affected by a resurgence of US/Canadian add-in card manufacturers which do not use S3 chipsets. A lot of Asian add-in cards sold may still use the Trio64V2 chip since ViRGE premium is not deemed useful. S3 was talking about 2D:3D ratios of 50:50 and 55:45 in recent quarters. Perhaps it has gone back to 65:35 or so now.

To: Mark Chavez who wrote (8943)	1/26/1998 1:15:00 PM
From: JerryP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14577

Pardon me, Mark, But, BILGE! " However, the real reason the layoffs occurred is likely that business has shrunk dramatically for S3." and "Hence, the prediction for really bad earnings." The first, even if it were remotely true, doesn't get you necessarily to the second. Back to the first....All press releases and news items I have seen mentioned administrative and support personnel being laid off. Not the front line engineering crew. I don't mind people honestly and knowledgeably downgrading this stock, but just because someone got burned doesn't make anybody liars, cheats, or criminals. I suppose if the next product that comes out flops, some people on this thread are going to want the bottom-dwelling, scum-sucking lawyers to sue the engineers. Ooops! I better go. I feel a rant coming up. JP O&A