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Non-Tech : Any info about Iomega (IOM)? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Olapet who wrote (51543)	3/29/1998 4:26:00 PM
From: Les White	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 58324

Some good news in a sea of bad. 1. Zip made standard in Europe! Siemens Nixdorff Intl., Fujitsu, and Maxdata will be including zip as standard. SDI will offer zip optional on it's notebooks. This is very good news if you're looking at the long term goal of making zip standard and insuring IOM's prosperity as a result. That's 1 whole continent down, 6 to go! It has occurred to me that these European PC manufacturer's have just as much to fear from Sony as IOM does. They seem to have made their decision to commit to zip at a time when Sony is reiterating it's plan to roll out HiFD this summer. Looks like some battle lines have been drawn in Europe. Sony w/ HiFD vs. everyone else w/ zip. Reminds me of Apple vs. Wintel. 2. S&P's Trendline Daily Action Stock Charts show: 10-31-97: 132 institutions held 14.5% of IOM 3-20-98: 170 institutions held 26.7% of IOM There has been so much ballyhoo of how the institutions avoid IOM because it's under $10 and there are so many shares. I think that's a load of crap. It may account for some institutional reluctance to invest in IOM but it doesn't account for who has been buying so many of IOM shares lately. I guarantee you it is the small guy who is scared sleepless that is bailing out now. Why has the $7 floor held up so well so far? It's institutional buyers accumulating massive quantities of shares falling from the sky. I believe by the time all of the worst is over the institutions will own a higher percentage of IOM than they ever have. 3. Sierk says, "The company has an impressive management team with substantial depth, don't expect another shoe to drop." (Knight Ridder News Service, 3-26-98) Well, I hope he's right and I'm glad to hear him say it. It is the right thing to say if you believe it. Actually, I was surprised that IOM fell only 1 point and held up under substantial selling pressure upon it's CEO's resignation. That's not very much fall for such a faith shattering announcement. The buyer's at 7 evidently view it as positive. 4. Valuation: I think it's a mistake to assume that IOM will fall to PE's comparable to the other DD manufacturers. Syquest didn't. I can't think of another company that has survived such a poor outlook and financial state of affairs. IOM's valuation has and I believe still does benefit from it's status as the leading RD maker and it's steady progress toward the Zip standard. Remember, Zip is not a commodity, it is proprietary. It's success commands a premium valuation. KE's ad campaign may have failed but Zip has not failed. It's still way ahead of the nearest competitor for low end RD's, and miles closer to becoming the standard. So maybe we'll have a couple of lousy Q's, but I do not believe the stock price is poised at the precipice of a bottomless pit waiting to be pushed over the edge. Maybe we will go a little lower but as the panic fades away and new management is announced I think we'll rebound a bit and ride back up pending future substantial news and progress. IOM is not a dead, no talent, wannabe that accidentally stepped in front of a truck and got flattened. It is a growing company with the same growing pains experienced by most growing companies. It's down but by no means out. Les