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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carl T Hammerdorfer who wrote (29133)	2/4/1998 7:21:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Non-linear video editing........................................ ijumpstart.com Media 100 to Sacrifice Profitability for Growth in 1998: Company Will Sink or Swim on Windows NT Success <Picture><Picture><Picture> Media 100 Inc. [MDEA] executives are gambling the entire company on Windows NT hardware, and they're willing to sacrifice profitability in fiscal 1998 to transition from being a Mac-only hardware provider. The company expects to ship its first NT product-the Bobcat non-linear video editor-in the second quarter, but any profits from that will be more than offset by heavy R&D investment, Media 100 President John Molinari told Multimedia Week. Focusing on future growth, however, is nothing new for Media 100, which hasn't had a yearly quarter to quarter net-income increase since being spun off as a separate company from Data Translation Inc. [DATX] in December 1996. "They've been resting on the same product they shipped three years ago," said Hany Nada, an analyst with Piper Jaffray [PJC]. "Avid [AVID] came out with MCXxpress and really took away their lunch." Nada believes Media 100 can operate without making a profit for the next two years and expects the company to use up about $10 million of the $33 million it has in cash. Molinari would not say when he expects the company to see a net-income gain, but clearly he sees an NT investment as critical to sustaining and increasing profitability. The first step toward that goal is to ship Bobcat, which Media 100 will preview at NAB 98 in April. The hardware is based on the Vincent digital-video engine and will be bundled with Apple Computer Inc.'s [AAPL] QuickTime 3.0 and Macromedia Inc.'s [MACR] Final Cut video-editing tool. Both software products have yet to ship. Nada doesn't expect Bobcat to generate a lot of revenue for Media 100 and said the company will develop its own software to complement the product. But Bobcat is only the beginning. Molinari said R&D is likely to double this year [to reach $17 million], largely due to the shift to NT. In the second half of the year, Media 100 expects to come out with several Windows NT-based products. And the company is relying on QuickTime 3.0's cross-platform capabilities to make that migration. For revenue, the company also is looking to other partnerships, including a distribution and development agreement with Radius Inc. [RDUS]. Media 100 will ship a second-generation Vincent product developed in conjunction with Radius that will allow developers to turn DV content into Media 100_s nativeJPEG format. The product will include a new chip with Radius microcode that enables real-time DV transport. The product will be available for the Mac and Windows NT. "This is our answer to DV," Molinari said. "It's not our sole answer; we'll support higher digital I/O in the future." Apple Allegiance? Despite the transition to NT, Media 100 hasn't foresaken the Macintosh market altogether. Media 100 will begin selling Radius' PhotoDV, MotoDV and EditDV Macintosh add-in cards this month. Molinari wouldn't commit to saying all products post-Bobcat will be available for Mac and Windows NT. "We're not making some philosophical goal for cross-platform products," he said. "A lot of it has to do with the well-being of Apple this year." (Media 100, 508/460-1600.)

To: Carl T Hammerdorfer who wrote (29133)	2/4/1998 8:06:00 PM
From: Bob Strickland	Respond to of 50808

Herb did add to the volatility of C-Cube's stock price, but he was correct about ESS and how the competition would hurt CUBE. A lot of people on this thread didn't want to hear about it. If C-Cube wasn't selling its MPEG1 decoders for a little more than the cost of a lunch at McDonalds, it would be reflected in the price of the stock. ESS is willing to basically give away its product under cost, which doesn't fare well for CUBE in this segment of its business. Hopefully ESS won't have enough capital to continue giving away its decoders for very long. BTW, if we are in the middle of the digital revolution, why haven't we had a product announcement from CUBE in over a month? I'm happy with the increased volume over the last couple of days and hope it's indicative of something good to come. Happy investing.