To: Michael Coley who wrote (5381 ) 2/3/1998 10:31:00 PM From: emichael Respond to of 7685
Top Investor Questions & Answers 1. What measures have been taken to strengthen management? SyQuest has significantly strengthened its senior management. The current management team has outstanding experience in the disk drive industry: Executive Title Experience Ed Marinaro Chairman of the Board Western Digital; Memorex; Network Computing Devices; Cipher Data Products Ed Harper President and CEO Colorado Memory Systems; Hewlett Packard Bob Corey Exec. VP, Finance and CFO Primavera; MTI; Emulex; Western Digital John MacKay COO Headway; Western Digital; Storage Technology Gary Marks Exec. VP, Marketing Conner Peripherals; Western Digital Gary Jones Exec. VP, Sales Iomega 2. When do you expect the company to return to profitability? Management is focusing on generating revenue growth through intense focus on driving progress in two key areas: (1) the development and manufacture of new and current products, and (2) a newly expanded advertising and marketing campaign designed to increase awareness and mindshare with end-users and channel sales partners. Management has not commented on when it anticipates the company will return to profitability. 3. How will SyQuest compete against its competitors to take advantage of the rapidly expanding storage market? SyQuest is the technology leader in - and in fact, the inventor of - this expanding high-performance removable cartridge category. Analyst and company research shows that the segment of the market in which SyQuest participates could grow to $9.2 billion by the year 2000. To position SyQuest to take advantage of this incredible market opportunity, SyQuest is building new products and has just completed a repositioning of the company, complete with a new company image and website. After commissioning exhaustive third-party research, SyQuest has learned that people are not saving "stuff" on their storage devices. Rather they are saving important pieces of their lives: their ideas and creations. SyQuest will use the tagline "Explore Your Genius" to tap into the emotional attachment that people feel for their creative work. A significantly expanded marketing budget will support efforts to communicate this new positioning to potential buyers. Newspaper, radio and billboard ads are currently running in 17 target markets across the U.S. Future cable TV advertising is planned. In November, SyQuest unveiled a product featuring its highly-anticipated Quest drive at the Fall COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada. This product features a 4.7-gigabyte capacity and is the first removable cartridge hard drive to utilize magneto-resistive heads. Research and development is currently underway for other new products. 4. What percentage of revenue will new products represent? What percentage of revenues do the current SyJet and EZFlyer products represent? The company doesn't forecast the mix of future revenue. The EZFlyer and SyJet revenues were approximately 75 percent of revenue in the quarter ended June 30, 1997. 5. How many units of SyJet and EZFlyer drives were sold in 1997? What are projections for 1998? The company doesn't disclose the number of units of individual products sold. 6. Who are the financial analysts following the company? Currently, one analyst has issued a report on the company. Howard Rosencrans HD Brous & Co. 516-773-1806 7. Are there any future plans for further financing? The company has successfully raised more than $175 million of capital since mid-1996. The ability to raise capital is critical to the continued success of the company. In November, SyQuest stockholders approved a measure to increase the authorized common shares from 120 million shares to 240 million shares. The company intends to pursue future financing to raise future capital; however, the precise terms and timing of future financing transactions have not been determined. 8. How many shares are outstanding? Presently, there are more than 62 million shares outstanding. 9. What was the highest price of SyQuest stock (NASDAQ:SYQT)? The 52-week high of SyQuest stock is $6.09 per share. 10. When is the next earnings release? The company's 1997 fiscal year ended on September 30. We anticipate issuing financial results for the 1998 first quarter - ending December 30, 1997 - no later than February 15, 1998. 11. Does SyQuest pay a dividend on common stock? The company has not and has no plans to pay a dividend on common stock. 12. How many employees does SyQuest have? The company has approximately 1,200 employees worldwide.