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Biotech / Medical : Summit Technology (BEAM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pappy who wrote (737)	3/7/1998 4:21:00 PM
From: John Binford, Jr.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1386

I wouldn't look for Summit to declare bankruptcy anytime soon. In fact, I noticed that some more insiders just bought into the stock in mid-February. This month the lawsuit against Summit on the machine sale royalties is supposed to take place. Visx is suing for $4.5+ million. I still own Summit and am encouraged by the insider buying. I also wish they would reduce their costs, as they should have been making money by now from the royalty income. Visx is making a substantial profit from the royalties and Summit just seems to tread water. Summit has known for over a year now that their machine sales aren't going to contribute to earnings and they should have adjusted their costs accordingly to allow the company to make a profit. I have seen the Visx plant and I can attest to the fact that Visx doesn't waste their money with expensive office setups. The executive offices are nothing out of the ordinary. I have heard that Summit has more a mahogany flavor and maybe that reflects their inability to cut costs so the real owners of the company (the shareholders) can get a nice return. If Summit can't make money in the good times with little competition, then why should they make money in the future? What worries me most about my Summit investment is if PPP is broken up, then what is Summit left with? The are stipulations allowing for cross licensing of the patents in case of a breakup of PPP, so Visx could just go on its way collecting the vast majority of the royalties. And then Visx would lure the remaining Summit users over to using the Visx machines. Visx has specifically targeted the high use Summit owners in their tradein policy, and it seems to have worked. As everyone knows, my biggest investment is with Visx, so Visx winning at Summit's expense wouldn't really hurt my returns. However, I would like to see both companies move back to their 1995 levels. Summit hit around a $1 billion market cap, and Visx hit a $600 million market cap. Look at Yahoo which shares the building with Visx, they have something like a $2.8 billion market cap with less sales and far less profits than Visx. Visx needs to lure some of the institutional investors visiting Yahoo in to hear the Visx pitch.

To: pappy who wrote (737)	3/8/1998 10:23:00 AM
From: yosid	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1386

Pappy I've asked Summit (over and over)the same question - how do you intend to stay in business as a laser manufacturer if you aren't selling lasers. The royalties are great, but they are based on past sales. If Visx has their way, they will replace the machines of BEAM's best customers with Visx lasers, and kill PPP. The key is the machines. The VISX machine is not state of the art either. There are better lasers being tested as we talk. If Summit would merge with a newer laser group, get any pending FDA approvals on the table, sell old and new customers a next generation laser, I would start shorting VISX tomorrow. That would allow the "jump".