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.

Technology Stocks : SILICON STORAGE SSTI Flash Mem -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sandra who wrote (159)	4/16/1998 10:06:00 PM
From: James Strauss	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1881

Sandra: I'm looking beyond the immediate... A look at ALSC will give you a hint of where SSTI is going... SSTI has a good Mgmt team... Jim

To: Sandra who wrote (159)	4/17/1998 11:47:00 AM
From: Smilodon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1881

Notes from the conference call. Overall, good rapport with investors. SST has done an excellent job of investor relations during their decline. This will enable the stock price to recover quickly as the company improves. While revenues were down, unit volume is up about 36% from last year. 2 MB is the fastest growing segment. SST expects a shift in the PC-BIOS market from 1MB to 2MB in the near future. Partly because of this and partly due to favorable wafer pricing in Q1, they built up inventory, particularly in 2MB. Saw a 15% decline in ASPs during the quarter. Partly due to Chinese new year, but mostly due to intense competition in PC-BIOS market. Also, due to currency fluctuations, local asian companies had a cost advantage. The company continues to make progress on reducing line widths. They are improving by one generation every year. In contrast it took them three years to go from .7 micron to .5 micron. They currently have .35 working and it will ship in 2h 98. They have started .25 micron work with TSMC, and mentioned they will start .18 development soon. The final products on .7 micron will be phased out by end of year. Lot of new products being developed. Two embedded flash controllers and compact flash cards for digital cameras are due to ship in 2h98. High density flash products should be out next year. All this should lead to improvements in gross margins, even in Q2. The company continues to do more licensing deals. Samsung was announced and they alluded to others to be announced soon. However, keep in mind that these deals take a long time to contribute revenue. They don't expect Samsung royalties until late 99. My biggest negative for the company was the use of cash. They spent some on inventory and will spend a lot more on buying land and building a new facility. This company has been cash flow positive since the IPO, so they may as well use the cash on something. However, it was always nice to see the big hoard of cash they had. Look for them to invest agressively in the business and the cash balance to decline dramatically. Also, I doubt they will continue with the stock buyback program. We should know for sure in next week or so. This is still one of my favorite stocks. I increased my position by 25% a few days ago.