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Technology Stocks : Network Associates (NET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joanna Tsang who wrote (2344)	4/8/1998 10:12:00 PM
From: AlienTech	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6021

Well I am calmer now :) still havent slept much in 4 or 5 days but here's something someone wrote that puts a lot of things into words. Seems a pretty smart fellow.... On NETG & NETA byte_bach Apr 8 1998 4:00PM EDT I was a fairly high ranking engineer at NGC and was there for four years. I asked to be fired in January (and, thankfully, was). NGC was a very interesting company -- it had a much higher proportion of really good engineers than most places - they felt ownership and pride in knowing they produced the best product of its class -- Sniffer. There are many protocol analyzers - why was Sniffer the best (and so could command a premium) even though it was wedded to DOS ? Simple -- it did the job right. Networks do not, in general, work like the books say they do - lots of tiny (but important) variations. Sniffer embodied ten years of painstaking analysis of what really happens in a network, and thats why it dominated its market. What was wrong at NGC - simple. Management could really not come to terms with the need for new products and new markets (there is, after all, only so much demand for a protocol analyzers, no matter how good). The board would agitate, Les Denend would agitate, but by the time it got down the the masses there was so much infighting and fear that, despite the fact that engineers could and would produce new products (and work very hard to do it) the products generally wilted and died on the vine before seeing the light of day. NGC had all the key parts to build a Windows version of Sniffer several years ago (and had built several prototypes) but again infighting occured and management decided to 'play it safe' by buying Cinco. It took the formation of a whole new group (the Internet Group - which wasn't expected to succeed) to get new products out (WebSniffer and CyberCop). At the time the choice of Weelgroup was a good one - NGC should have bought them (and almost did). I don't know, but I suspect Larsen bought NGC for its enterprise Sales force (a good one) and its customer list (a good one). He believes he can milk Sniffer and its ilk by bundling them into Suites and charging bottom dollar. Thus the best return on the dollar is to put these into maintenance mode and sell them in an "oh, by the way, let me throw in threee sniffers" (migrating to the Sniffer code quickly to the Cinco base lets you have a software only sale .. high margins). By the time this tactic runs out there'll be another company to buy, and the same game to be played. I left because the writing was clearly on the wall -- in order for Larsen to succeed he had to adopt this approach. McAfee is in the $49 software league emotionally ("it doesn't work properly ? What do you expect for $49 ?"). NetG was in the customer satisfaction business -- different model, financial and ethical. Not necessarly better, or worse, just different. One thing is clear. The engineers who have left are the really good ones -- that ten years worth of IP, the crown jewels of a tech company, walked out with them. There will be no compelling new products from that side of the house .. but again, that is not Larsen's game plan. Currently long on NETA. de gustibus non disputandum est. But I guess your experience can be said as this :) Whiners forum long_sight Apr 8 1998 9:41PM EDT Some interesting comments, my response? "You remind me of myself, A young and hard working horse with blinders on. I've been there a longer time then you, and yes you made through this cut, we'll see what happens to you in the next 6 month cut. {that will happen, I know}" I'm in my mid-30's and have been in this game for 11+ years, I'm hardly young and simple. Experienced enough for you??? "I laugh, your young and foolish to think you are not expendable, it sounds like you have less experience then the people I knew there, who were let go" . I did not say that I was not expendable, everyone is expendable, but those who develop and keep pace with changing tides can stay afloat. I could cop out and go back to a safe, cushy job, but I like it here. You just couldn't hack it. "BTW, the adverage dev staying there is 2 1/2 years. if you don't move up to managment.. your gone, or your burnt." Average staying time for any dev. type in any s/w company is 2.5 yrs. Job hopping is still the fastest way to up your salary. oh, and I AM in management. Quit yer whining, you made lots of money out of your options. (If you did all that without a decent option grant then you are even more of a fool than I thought) NETA doesn't care about its people any more or less than any other company in the business.