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Technology Stocks : BORL: Time to BUY! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Delbert W. Yocam who wrote (9445)3/13/1998 1:14:00 PM
From: Frank Cowan  Respond to of 10836
 
>What do you think of our new web site look. We had over a million >hits last week - the first time ever.

The web site is great!

Since this seems to be a direct line, I have a request:

The issue is Interbase. The strategy appears to be to
sell into the 'larger' customers. I feel unless the mass
of we (Delphi and other Borland products) programmers
become comfortable with it, it will not get the
bottom-up push that seems helpful for Delphi.

Last year MS included copies of SQL 6.5 in a special
version configured for 10 users; this allowed millions
to become familiar with it, and probably will
increase its sales in the future. I would like to
see Borland have an inexpensive version that we
might buy just for the learning experience.

Either free or low cost so that the million Delphi
and BCB folks will comfortable with it. Selling a two
user system does not seem to allow for real testing;
until we feel comfortable with it, we can't promote
it. Think of it as advertising. Of course if sales
are in the million$ now, you might not want to mess
with a good thing. But, there is precedent: IE, VB,
BTP, RealAudio, and more. Its all about 'mind share',
after all.

Go Borl!

Come to think of it, you need me in
your marketing department! <G>

Frank Cowan



To: Delbert W. Yocam who wrote (9445)3/13/1998 1:48:00 PM
From: Bipin Prasad  Respond to of 10836
 
Hi Del,

This is BPP(Bipin's partner) who does lowly investment for him.
I forwarded your question to Bipin because he is the techie.
Here's his response:

P. S. What do you think of our new web site look. We had over
a million hits last week - the first time ever.


I looked at the new Web site. This is tremendously better than
the previous format.

Two things in particular stand out:

1. The information is well organized. Perhaps going to the
Borland Online format introduces some documentation discipline.
I was able to see and access "interesting" information without
a lot of clicking and exploring.

2. Borland has now filled in enough gaps (RAD for C++, RAD for
JAVA, Enterprise solutions and pieces, BSP programs (sales and
marketing) etc) that there is a coherent and substantial message.
This is also reflected in the web page, in the content and in its
organization.

There is also an impression that the company is going places
and has vision. Some of these are articulated on the web page.
This looks good.

Bipin Prasad



To: Delbert W. Yocam who wrote (9445)3/14/1998 9:29:00 AM
From: Timothy Wojnar  Respond to of 10836
 
Del wrote:
>>>
P. S. What do you think of our new web site look. We had over a million hits last week - the first time ever.
<<<

First of all- thanks for taking the time and congratulations on your current(and future!) success with Borland.

AFA the Web site, it's starting to grow on me although my first reaction was that I didn't think it had an extremely polished design.

The content, however, has been continuously improving and I love it! As a developer, I use it all the time. The more information the better as long as a conscious effort is made in keeping things organized.

Thanks again,
Tim Wojnar



To: Delbert W. Yocam who wrote (9445)3/14/1998 11:21:00 AM
From: R.S. Blum  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 10836
 
Del,

Quick question--Nothing worse than someone pretending to be someone else, regardless of intentions. I have noticed that either you have paid and established two distinctly separate accounts or someone is playing around. Unfortunately, with the free trials SI offers at times, imposters sprout like weeds.

There's one account listed under Del Yocam est. Jan 21, 1998 which was used to post 4 messages from 1/21/98 to 1/22/98 with nothing since. The other account is listed under Delbert W. Yocam was est. May 9, 1997 and has gone unused until Feb and your most recent March posts.

Although nothing overt appears amiss in either account posts so far, this certainly seems curious and the opportunity for an imposter to craftly misstate is obvious. Nothing worse than having an unknown alter ego running loose.

Gotta run and finish my Aliens Among Us article for Spy Mag before Monday's deadline...
-Scott



To: Delbert W. Yocam who wrote (9445)3/20/1998 5:23:00 PM
From: Maher Sid-Ahmed  Respond to of 10836
 
To Del Yocam: Since you have taken the helm at Borl you have improved and expanded the product line, improved earning, and expanded the customer base to include enterprises without excluding the small developer. However, the share price of Borl has been in a roller coaster mode. In reality we are back to where we were more than a year ago. Presidents or CEO's of companies like MSFT and AT&T went publicly and declared that they intend to continue to improve shareholder's equity through improvement in earning growth, and that statement has produced growth in share price of over 40% per year. I know that you have stated that revenue should increase to $500,000 by the year 2000 and implicitly one can assume that earnings will improve. The market nonetheless is bearish on Borland's stock because of the Visigenic acquisition and the possible future acquisitions that could slow down earning growth. Up till now you have not explained how a 160 million dollar acquisition will improve Borland's earning growth. Some analysts have even questioned the necessity and cost of this acquisition which caused the share price to drop from $12 to almost $7 and is now struggling to stay above $9. It would be important that your IR officer explain in plain English how that purchase will help the company grow. I am a fan of Borland products, but I am very disappointed at the performance of it's share price.
I have four questions
1. Does Borland intend to produce C++Builder and other products for the Apple platform which represent 3.5% of the market?
2. Are there any plans to develop products for the Unix platform, e.g. for the Sun or Silicon graphics platforms.
3. Your web site does not have a direct link to the IR department or FAQ for the investors. When do you intend to include one? By the way I think the new web site is functional but not as artistically designed as the previous one.
4. Any future acquisition plans can destablize the share price again. Do you have any further acquisition plans in the near future?

Thanks.

Maher