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Technology Stocks : Scientific Atlanta -SFA- going up ??? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maven who wrote (229)	3/7/1998 3:28:00 PM
From: Marathon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1045

Why wont MSFT kill SFA or at least eliminate opportunity for profit the way it has done in every other field it has wanted to enter? Isn't MSFT campaigning hard to have ITS operating system Windows CE or some other version used in the next generation cable set top boxes? Put me down as a MSFT hater, but I have held stocks (NOVL, NSCP, CKFR) that operate in sectors that MSFT is interested in. It is no fun. Even if the product of the non-MSFT competitior is superior and ahead (i.e. 18 monts) MSFT showing up scares the daylights out of big fund investors in the non-MSFT competitor. I like the SFA story but . . . someone tell me why MSFT will not ruin the party (18 month lead and own "current" operating system in boxes available now IS NOT ENOUGH). All MSFT has to do is grease the right palms and say "we have this vapor ware product we are working on right now and gee its gonna be dandy, don't buy the competitors currently available product, wait for ours or you will be sorry." Man I hate MSFT sometimes.

To: Maven who wrote (229)	3/7/1998 3:53:00 PM
From: E.H.F.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1045

Robert, here's the deal. Cable is going into another growth phase, going into interactive programming, video on demand, etc. SFA is the only company that makes interactive digital set top boxes, and they also own the programming that makes it work. They have an 18 month lead on everyone else. This all from his hotline, after the market has closed. The conference was two days, and it concluded on Friday. News became widespread Thursday after hours, which I think accounts for the volume on Friday. Monday's volume was mostly J.D. subscribers with some Funds blindly buying in because they saw that something was up and didn't want to be left out. Recent news releases about various companies buying SFA's boxes support J.D.'s recommendation. Those boxes aren't cheap, and SFA is or is going to be selling hundreds of thousands of them. Another thing is that their cost will be reduced because the memory chips that go into the boxes are dropping in price. E.H.F.