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To: Mark Oliver who wrote (2492)	2/20/1998 1:07:00 AM
From: Frodo Baxter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

>It seems to me that Quantum is providing some interesting technologies, but do they really give Quantum an advantage? Does Quantum make any money on this technology when other vendors choose to use it? Well, they did have the Ultra/33 market all to themselves from around spring 97 till fall 97.

To: Mark Oliver who wrote (2492)	2/20/1998 10:28:00 AM
From: Sam	Respond to of 9256

Mark & all, Have just been looking at Edgar filings for QNTM. There are more than I have time to look at for now. A sampling of filings in the past 2 weeks or so: 2/4/98 Sanford Bernstein 13.186 million shares (9.7%) 2/6/98 FMR Corp 15.2 million sh (11.05%) (Edward Johnson (CEO of FMR) personally owns over 400,000 sh) 2/6/98 Franklin Resources/Templeton Global Advisors Inc. 1.46m sh (1.1%) 2/10/98 Capital Group Companies 4.8 million sh (3.5%) 2/11 FMR Corp (again, I'm not sure why) 12.686m sh (did they sell 3 million shares? E. Johnson still listed as owning more than 400,000) 2/13 J. P. Morgan 5.5 million sh 2/14 Goldman Sachs 9.016 million sh (6.65%) There are a number of others in January which I haven't looked at yet. To see for yourself, go to URL freeedgar.com A lot of big buyers in this beaten up company in this down trodden sector that many think is toast. Guess they don't share Cramer's view that it will take "years" for a recovery to begin. Or perhaps they just need tax losses for their clients, since they hate the government so much. To repeat: I'm holding. Best wishes, Sam

To: Mark Oliver who wrote (2492)	2/20/1998 5:52:00 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 9256

Mark, "I wonder if there will be a consolidation of Samsung and Maxtor? Seems logical that the different chabols could do themselves a service by trading under developed business units to play on strengths." I doubt if they will merge. From everything I can gather from reading, they are in different leagues for now--Maxtor is far ahead of Samsung in quality and strategy (although I am personally suspicious of Maxtor; I will believe that they are for real after they've made a successful product transition or two). If the article I pointed to a couple of posts ago (see post 2501) is correct in saying Hyundai and the other major chabols were told by Korea Inc. President Kim to sell their non-core businesses and focus on their core competencies, then I am guessing that they will both be out of this business within the next year, and perhaps much sooner. This is especially true if pricing pressures remain strong; it just doesn't make sense for them to stay in this business given their secondary position in it. (That is why I am not that unhappy about pricing pressures right now--if it had to happen at all--and why I think it makes some perverse sense, taking a long range view of the industry from the point of view of SEG, QNTM and WDC. They do not want to compete against a "country-run company", as it were.) That is more true of Samsung than of Maxtor, but given the relatively small size of Maxtor's business relative to Hyundai at large, I can't imagine that they define it as a "core" business. They will sell it or spin it off. Perhaps (WARNING: raving speculation follows) one reason that WDC is raising, what is it, $500 million is to buy them. Who knows, but the sale of Symbios to ADPT was a good sign, IMO. Anyone else have an opinion about this? Best regards, Sam