Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Microcap & Penny Stocks : OWLD OneWorld Systems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SteveHC who wrote (1354)	4/1/1998 1:32:00 AM
From: Thomas Leavitt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1648

Re: Small office market Back in fall 1995, when these guys were flying high, we were nearly purchased by them (thank god almighty it didn't work out). Way back then... more than two and half years ago... they realized that they had to diversify into the PC market to survive. They failed to execute, and thus we're killed by Apple's Powerbook 5300 problems. At that point, they also had a skunkworks product for providing small office Internet connectivity... they had spent a huge amount of money to provide customers with a solid small office email solution, and apparently, from what I could gather, had been somewhat blindsided by the emergence of the Web. So, back in the spring of last year, their GlobalCenter spin off (done circa June 1996) (which was run by people who had a clue) approached us. By that point, GVIL had dumped a huge amount of money into this "division", for something that sounds remarkably similar to what they are now proposing, and gotten almost nothing in return. (This didn't work out either). Their OneWorld small office mail server solution had almost no success, and in fact, one of their customers later told us they were dumping it, because it require rebooting two or three times a day. From what I can tell from GlobalCenter's eventual SEC filing in preparation for IPO, eventually the company dumped and wrote off this entire product line - everything they inherited when they spun off from GVIL (except for the CEO). What throughly pisses me off about this whole situation is that GVIL has ALREADY DONE THIS and FAILED, UTTERLY to execute. We're talking YEARS of trying to impact this market. YEARS I thought they'd finally gotten a clue and decided to focus on what they did best - modems, selling off all the bullshit and shutting it down. If I had realized they intended anything like this, I would've been gone long ago. Thank god I cashed out of this stock in my IRA. Lesson #1 learned from this: bleep capital gains taxes, bail when you're up! One of our consultants, who used to work at Apple, describes GVIL's CEO as someone who thinks he knows a lot more than he actually does... this person said in fact that he left Apple for GVIL partially due to the fact that he made a brain dead decision on some part for the Powerbook line that cost them a fortune. This person nearly fell out of the chair laughing when I mentioned GVIL and the fact that I had stock... person said, "Glad he's finally making money for someone." Given today's events, I'm forced to think this person is right. Bleep this. I'm gone, tommorrow. Pennies is right. If it ain't headed for pennies, nothing is going to happen for a long time. Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital has left their board, too... I bet he's totally written off their investment in GVIL, and just took what they got out of GlobalCenter and run. What kind of credibility are these idiots going to have in the venture/institutional investor community with a track record like this, and in the wake of a deal like this? I don't really see Internet magic touching them. Again, I emphasize - THEY'VE TRIED THIS BEFORE, AND FAILED FAILED FAILED UTTERLY COMPLETELY EXPENSIVELY VERY EXPENSIVELY Goddamn. Thomas