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Technology Stocks : The New QLogic (ANCR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Roger Arquilla who wrote (15273)	3/19/1998 1:24:00 PM
From: Patrick Sharkey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29386

Roger, that is exactly what we have been trying to find out, and it is more important than ever to make that determination so that it also can be determined just how speculative this speculative stock remains. This board has concluded that MKII is superior in performance, but the real question is just how superior, and important is that superiority to an OEM. In my business, some matters involving important company policies, or its very existence, require the purchase of legal services where cost is of small or no concern, and who you know makes no difference beyond the initial introductions. On the other hand, many other products offered by law firms are quite price/performance sensitive, and who you know makes a difference. In my view, Ancor's location has always been harmful to its prospects. On the other hand, the fact that fierce competitors in the storage world may not want to deal with the same switch vendor, for a lot of reasons, makes it more likely that no one vendor is going to get all of the business. One of those vendors is Brocrade. Will the next vendor be Ancor? Can Ancor compete on price when it comes down to the short strokes of an OEM negotiation (forget the list price), and can the OEM count on Ancor to be able to mass produce and deliver on an agreed upon schedule. Right now I am out of the stock, for the first time in over two years, and I won't get back in until: (i) Ancor demonstrates that it has a produce that the market wants; or (ii) the price becomes so compelling that the investment speculation is reduced. In my view, (i) has not yet been shown, and (ii) the price is too high at this point. I sold some before the SUN news in the context of the runup in price, and sold the balance on the SUN news on the bounce back in the late morning. I sold because I believe that SUN's decision was on the overall merits, not just because some Brocade investors would be helped by (an as yet unconfirmed) deal between SUN and Brocade or that Brocade engineers came from SUN. I believe that important decisions are made on the merits; if, on the other hand, this decision was not made on the merits, it must be because the identity of the switch vendor is just not that big a deal. If not, then location, friendships, etc. will tip the balance in other situations as well, and just why would HP, Unisys or IBM decide to go with Ancor and not with "their friends" in the business? While disappointed in the results of what I believe was an open, head-to-head competition on the merits, in which Ancor did not prevail, I will continue to follow the stock closely, and I hope that Ancor can demonstrate that it is here to stay.