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Technology Stocks : Read-Rite -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CPAMarty who wrote (3364)	5/28/1998 2:06:00 PM
From: Dennis R. Duke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5058

Just got off the phone with Katie. Seems that like all companies they can not control their customers. It seems that while close on a 2.8 qualification that at this time they are not yet authorized to say it. It is possible that a 3.4 qualification could be announced before a 2.8. They are that close in the process for both that they are neck and neck in the approval/announcement cycles. 2.1 will lead the way in revenues for this quarter with maybe as much as 80% of sales. Next quarter that might fall off to 40%ish, being replaced by other products. The R&D guys are busy and the Optical Kodak guy is doing his thing. Maybe there might be a demo at Comdex, with minor product revenues in very late '99. Remember they did not make those R&D hires to grow weeds. They are busy IMHO, and Katie could not be totally open about what was in store here. Given the product delivery cycle of 12 weeks for Head Stacks and much shorter for Sliders, I believe they are close to getting a handle on the quarter. The 10 to 20% sales growth over last quarter she would like people to think is more like 10 to 15%, but the 20% is an outside possibility if all the planets aligned correctly. That might mean guessing at 15% makes more sense, but an upside surprise would be nice, IMHO. Forecasting revenues is not as hard when they have only a hand full of customers. But talking on the phone it is hard to see her forecast book. Finally, she reported that "us SI guys are calling all the time". So if you are picking any negative attitude it is most likely that she is on the phone a lot filling us in on what she can in this legalistic shareholder relations environment. Her attitude was fine with me. Her disappointment was with the lack of control over their clients and not being able to make an announcement on qualification. That is the only thing that she was negative about in our phone call. That must be a bummer to know you're close, and not able to tell the people who keep calling and asking when, when, when...... Keep your chins up, Dennis