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Technology Stocks : INVX Innovex Comdex Winner !! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Box-By-The-Riviera™ who wrote (2591)	7/8/1998 4:19:00 PM
From: Kurthend	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3029

Joel, Thought you might like this from the Yahoo post. C Kelly seems to be very enlightened concerning the hdd industry and HIF vs TSA. You can look through the INVX Yahoo thread and look at his previous posts. Both CKelly and a poster named Warren seem very knowledgable. Take care, Kurt <- Previous Next -> Message 2162 of 2163 Reply I'm still short HTCH ckelly7279 Jul 8 1998 1:20PM EDT You said: <<But what about all the contracts HTCH HAS received. HTCH claims that their doors are being beaten down by demand for TSA. Their only constraint is manufacturing capacity which they are spending furiously to bulk up. Several leading drive/head guys have indicated that they will build TSAs into ALL of their new drives. You keep focusing on the fact that ONE player, SEG, has not selected TSA. What about the SEVERAL big cheeses who have? IBM, who developed TSA technology in the first place etc. IBM and others do their homework before they leap. The company's economic model sounds reasonable to me as long as the demand will be there and it sounds from listening to the bulls here and speaking with the company (yeah I know)like there will. Still have more work to do but as yet, I'm not convinced by your short story. The stuff above sounds pretty bullish to me so I'd like to hear your reaction.>> Well, I certainly wouldn't want to convince anyone to short HTCH. I DO want people who are long HTCH to consider the risk of INVX's HIF which to my knowledge none of the HTCH analysts has even mentioned. No question that HTCH has a number of contratcs for TSA. Why? Because TSA saves the DD manufactuers money as opposed to using wires. TSA came first and DD manufacturers adopted it. SEG is the only DD manufacturer to evalute both TSA and HIF (initially it (and not INVX) did the testing to see if HIF would work), and it chose HIF and is using in all of their new drive programs. Plain and simple INVX has been late to the market with HIF. This month they will ship prototypes of bonded HIF to all DD manufacturers with test results on the performance of HIF. Now, DD manufactuers will be able to compare TSA to bonded HIF. My focus on SEG using HIF in all of its new drive programs is simple. SEG USING HIF IN HIGH VOLUME PROVES THAT IT WORKS. (HTCH had claimed that HIF would not work for various reasons). So, if we can agree that bonded HIF works, the short story is simple. Bonded HIF costs about $1.00. TSA will sell for $1.80 by the end of this year. INVX is currently producing HIF for less than its sales price. TSA costs HTCH $3.00 to make (this may be lower now). I'm a DD manufacturer. I have a drive program that needs 8 TSAs of HIFs per drive. It will cost me $8.00 for the HIFs and $14.40 for the TSAs. Difference is $6.40 per drive, which do I choose? To me it's a no brainer. Why short? Ignoring the price differential, HTCH can't even make these things at a profit. HTCH's valuation, IMHO, is based on rosey TSA sales for fiscal 1999 (remember No HTCH analyst report mentions HIF competition). They are loaded with debt. When bonded HIF is adopted, INVX will get their suspensions from manufactuers other than HTCH. ALa the double wammy, you lose TSA sales and you lose the conventional suspension sales for that drive program. <<I would also be curious if you have any more info on these engineers who left HTCH and what was their motiviation. Were they senior people? Were they smart, key people or just kids out of grad school who saw all the silicon valley IPOs and decided they would get in on the action.>> All I know is that HTCH said 4 of the 5 were supervisor or management level.

To: Box-By-The-Riviera™ who wrote (2591)	7/8/1998 6:56:00 PM
From: Richard H.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3029

What's your take on the significance of this announcement.... Wednesday July 8, 5:58 pm Eastern Time Alza to more than triple U.S sales staff PALO ALTO, Calif., July 8 (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical company Alza Corp said Wednesday it would more than triple its U.S. sales staff in 1998 from 100 to 360 by hiring personnel from other leading drug and medical products makers. The expanded sales force will specialize in oncology and urology products, Alza said in a statement. The move will modestly dilute the company's fiscal 1998 earnings per share, it said. As part of the expansion, Alza said it would hire up to 75 specialized urology sales representatives from Vivus, Inc, (VVUS - news), maker of the impotence treatment Muse. It will hire an additional 150 people from Innovex Inc (INVX - news), a Hopkins, Minnesota-based maker of electrical components for the medical instruments markets. ''We believe our existing portfolio, as well as products under late development such as Ditropan XL and Duros leuprolide, will benefit greatly from increased exposure to prescribing physicians,'' Alza's Chairman and Chief Executive Ernest Mario said in a statement. ''While this initiative will result in a modest dilution of our 1998 earnings per share, we expect solid earnings growth in 1999 and beyond,'' Mario said. Under terms of the agreement with Vivus, the urology representatives joining Alza will continue to sell Muse until the end of the calendar year. Alza, based in Palo Alto, develops drug delivery technologies. Thanks. Richard.