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 : Systemsoft Inc. (SYSF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Allen Benn who wrote (3289)	5/6/1998 10:44:00 AM
From: J L Segal	Respond to of 3529

Allen, very good points, and very well said. Thank you for pointing out that there is a very bright light at the end of SYSF's long tunnel. JL

To: Allen Benn who wrote (3289)	5/7/1998 6:35:00 AM
From: Robert Scott	Respond to of 3529

Thanks for your analysis. I have always maintained that Angelo got caught up in the potential for SW like a kid who gets excited about a vacation and then realizes its a long way away. So he's human and should have been more conservative but some of his enthusiasim was generated by OEM & analyst comments after reviewing the product. Hopefully Deb can work her magic on corps and seems to be off to a good start with CA deal.

To: Allen Benn who wrote (3289)	5/7/1998 11:39:00 AM
From: Mark Brophy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3529

The assets walk out the door every night. The success of a software company depends more upon their ability to attract and retain employees than any other factor. SystemSoft lost 80% of the Radish employees shortly after the merger. They revealed last quarter that they lost 50% of the sales staff. A new company, ServiceSoft, has been formed by ex-employees to compete directly and Intel is a funding source. They also had to spin out 85% of their promising USB business. Given their history, I suspect the reason is that Angelo feared the employees would leave and start a new company, so he reckoned that 15% was better than 0%. It would be worth your considerable research time to speak with the management of Puma Technology, a WinCE company in San Jose that was founded by former SystemSoft executives. They might also be able to provide insight to the extent that WinCE threatens Wind River and other traditional RTOS companies. The turnover problem isn't new. Bob Haustin wrote about it in 1996 at Message 301091. I know this company, (first hand..). If you don't believe me-quiz me. Did you know that SYSF had an employee turn over rate of nearly 30% less than 2 years ago?(hint). There's a good reason why I know things about this company, that most outsiders don't. Enough said on that... I contributed to this site to give small investors some insite on what really goes on at SYSF. I see now that most do not want to hear it, that you will follow along blindly. I sincerly wish you the best of luck, and hope that this stock doesn't turn sour on you. I've spoken to long-time Phoenix employees who characterize Angelo not as a "fierce competitor", but as a "gangster". The class action securities lawyers agree and are fighting all over themselves to represent the plaintiffs. They waited a long time for a very strong case and are likely to win. Angelo isn't a high school kid overexcited on his first date. He has been in the business a long time and knows exactly what he's trying to accomplish. The millions he has made selling SystemSoft stock are vivid testament to that fact. Haustin wrote more about the history of the company at Message 292709. SystemSoft is primarily a BIOS company, a notebook BIOS company. They began about 5 years ago writing peripheral drivers for mice and such, then began making modifications to Quadtel's system BIOS. Later they began working on power management software for notebooks. After PTL sued them, PTL bought Quadtel. This left SYSFT with no BIOS to sell. They found Eurosoft, and acquired the source code for their BIOS. Since then SYSF has been modifying and reselling that core code. Their biggest break came 2-3 years ago when the got in the PCMCIA business. This had been their most successful project yet, producing some very fine pieces of software. But with WIN95 providing native PCMCIA support (which SYSF sold to Microsoft for $500k), and more and more operating systems providing pccard support as well, they knew that their PCMCIA business would begin to fade. And it has. A year ago, in the midst of looking for a new revenue generator, they stumbled on the SystemWizard idea (partly because of the work they did on CardWizard). They then went out looking for sponsors, and amazingly found a couple who were willing to help in it's development (DEC, Intel). I know this company's heritage deeply, don't kid yourself this is a BIOS company pretending to be something more... You're right that since Haustin wrote that post, SystemSoft has developed the SystemWizard business. But, that's nothing special. Every software company has products that are becomeing obsolete and others that are growing revenues. The effectiveness of a manager is measured by his ability to create new revenue sources faster than the old cash cows are dying. Angelo has destroyed shareholder equity at a rapid rate despite diluting the stock. We now know for sure that Phoenix was right to fire him. Haustin also commented on PTEC-SYSF at Message 286357. Phoenix didn't 'let' them go start SystemSoft, they booted (pun intended) out the now CEO of SystemSoft. He in turn pulled the others out along with him (or so the story goes). PTL and SYSF are sworn enemies, make no mistake-they don't like each other. Which is why Phoenix sued SYSF at their first opportunity. Also why PTL bought out the company SYSF was getting their BIOS code from a few years ago, forcing them to find another (eurosoft). SystemSoft as a company was based on revenge, if nothing else. SystemWizard was an attempt to diversify the companies product line. Revenues from BIOS and Driver license royalties just weren't cutting it. Phoenix is still king of that area. To their credit they identified an opportunity (tech support costs) and acted on it. Phoenix doesn't like Award, either. They paid nearly double Award's IPO price from 18 months ago because Award has proven that they can inflict pain to SystemSoft. They intend to destroy SystemSoft and that's also the reason they agreed to market CyberMedia's product to the OEM channel (now a dormant activity - FirstAid is also a failure). Intel and DEC are unimpressed with Angelo and have sold their royalty rights to SystemWizard. CA and Sykes are their only hopes now.

To: Allen Benn who wrote (3289)	5/7/1998 8:13:00 PM
From: Jimbo Cobb	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 3529

>>Does this thread owe Bob Angelo an Apology? Allen, although you make some good points, I for one don't believe this thread owes Bob Angelo an apology. He sold millions of shares of SYSF near the peak of an artificially inflated stock price, making millions upon millions of dollars for himself while shareholder equity flew out the door at a rapid pace. I listened to his comments on numerous conference calls. I heard him say how Andy Grove was going to make SystemWizard the main topic of his keynote address in Madison Square Garden. To the best of my knowledge from what I gathered about the speech (I wasn't there, but I listened to part of it over the Internet), Andy Grove never even mentioned SystemWizard in that speech. After Angelo made those comments to analysts during a conference call--that's when SYSF soon skyrocketed to its all-time high price. Maybe Grove changed his speech in the weeks between the conference call and the Madison Square Garden presentation. Maybe Angelo was just trying to pump the stock as sky-high as possible to unload his millions of shares. I heard him make many other claims that never came true. I asked when the commercial (shrink-wrap) version of SystemWizard would be available...he said next quarter....then the next quarter he said the next quarter...and on and on and on, and here it is years later and still no commercial shrink-wrap version. I understand they customize SystemWizard for each OEM/application, and that makes sense. But apparently he was either intentionally misleading folks during the conference call or the CEO of the company had no idea what they were really planning to do. I believe the only apology due right now is an apology from Bob Angelo to SYSF shareholders for falsely presenting the market potential for SystemWizard revenue/earnings, or at least the time-frame for such earnings. With the mounting losses of the past few quarters, I don't even see how SYSF will be able to pay Intel the millions they owe them. I'm afraid this company could be headed under. I hope not...even GMGC appears to have come back from the grave. Maybe there is still hope, but it appears slim at this point. Mark.