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Technology Stocks : Fonix:Voice Recognition Product (FONX) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Fairways9 who wrote (1620)	2/15/1998 5:21:00 PM
From: Dr. Bob	Respond to of 3347

Marc, I don't take too much exception with your comments, but there's a couple I think are overly simplified. First, Obertueffer and Cole have not "staked their reputations on fonix" - anymore than anyone else who accepts a job or says nice things about a company does. Fonix can end up as a footnote in ASR history and it wouldn't be curtains for either of these guys. Their reputations are based on their work at their primary places of employment - and neither of those companies have any major stake in whether fonix succeeds or not, either. Second, if fonix could sell out for $50 million, shareholders would get less than $1 per share. That's a downside risk of about 70%. You seem to think that's insignificant. Finally, I think you overestimate how great an influence the press could have on fonix's stock value. At the present time, if the press told both sides of the fonix story, as people have heard it described here (very fairly, I think), I think it would have negligible effect on the fonix price, because it would be clear how speculative an investment this is, how questionable have been some of the moves by management, and how many promised timelines have been broken (weren't we supposed to have the first agreement with Siemens in the books by now, and some other announcements about licensing partners?) - all independent of the value of the technology. If you really think some press attention could induce a major move in fonix's price, you have even more reason to be upset with fonix's management, because they should have accomplished this by now - remember the big press release last summer about the company they'd hired to help with getting their story out? Bob

To: Fairways9 who wrote (1620)	2/15/1998 5:37:00 PM
From: Dr. Bob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3347

Marc, Sorry for piling on - just a couple more thoughts! First, "SMD won't make Fonix a success, the engineers will. Bill Gates doesn't care what the business people think..." You gotta be kidding! Bill Gates is the epitome of how important savvy business sense is! He took products that were inferior to Apple's and Netscape's and succeeded magnificently. You've GOT to have both good engineers and good businessmen - name me a successful company on the stock market that doesn't have both, and it will be the exception that proves the rule. Second, you and others have discussed the apparent oversight of fonix in the Business Week article; you've minimized the importance of that, since Obertueffer was quoted. But look at Obertueffer's own publication - you hardly get the impression reading it that the fonix is the Holy Grail, and if his publication won't say it, neither will anyone else's for a long time to come, if ever. Finally, I think we're a long ways from knowing who's right or wrong - it's only near at hand if you believe everything the company promises, and I don't think even the fonix bulls on this thread have glasses that rosy. And a PS - for this company to call itself the human computer interface leader is the height of arrogance. As a goal in their mission statement, fine - but as a statement of fact in the header for their web page, is unabashed hype - and that's being polite. Bob