Part 2: looong tolk with Dave Zacarias, CFO of TDFX
-I asked about that press release that Ballard was supposed to come out with about the Glide games (mentioned in CC). He said that Greg had put it up on the site, though it wasn't very complete, and it wasn't a press release. He said that he had brought it up to Greg, and that Greg agreed that since he said he would put this out, that he will, and the PR should be coming out soon.
OK, I mentioned earlier the prospect of them selling their own boards (I will refer to this as Jeff's rumor #147). During the discussion, he said that though they had talked about it and that it wasn't happening any time soon, if at all, he cited distribution as being a major factor. I then mentioned that STBI was profitable...and could produce boards...and had a pretty small market cap...and that they have great OEM and retail distribution...(this would constitute Jeff's rumor #175) he laughed, and said that they have noticed such things...
- For those of you who don't know, TDFX works directly with the OEM's to get acceptance of a product. In other words, they get with Dell and put on the hard sell, using reference boards. Then the OEM chooses the boardmaker- generally one which they have worked with before. So while we wait for boardmakers to announce Banshee designs, it doesn't mean that TDFX hasn't been putting the hard sell to the boxmakers...
-I mentioned that I love the business model- OEM and retail, the whole SLI thing, etc, and that I hope that they continue to do 3D only add- in boards. He said that there is a good chance of this as they see the AIB (add in board) market growing. You will have a general graphics card, and then pop in a new 3D board when you want better performance (we didn't get into this in detail, but I am guessing that this is stemming from the fact that 2D has gone pretty much as far as it will go...).
-Banshee on the motherboard- yes, it can. But he sees the market being much higher for the Banshee on a card.
-That damned stock price! I was of course friendly about this, and he is also quite upset at the price of the stock. They do believe that it is undervalued. So I asked about a buyback...this has come up several times at board meetings, but as of yet the board has not decided to do this. I asked about employee options- if employees are concerned or if morale was hurting. He said morale was very good, that people enjoy working there (probably the typical Silicon Valley sandals and a t-shirt, bring the dog to work thing), but that they are well aware of the option concern. Nobody has been bitchin' about it, but I get the feeling that they are staying on top of it, and that they won't let the talent leave (my note: where the hell are they going, TDDDF? SIII :p I know, nVidia, Intel, ATI...).
-But Creative got the TNT!!! yes, but he sees potential for Banshee to fit into their line. He sounded very confident about this. I am of course biased, and a generally positive guy, but I think that we will see Banshee in a Creative card. He seemed to think that the market thinks of Banshee as being a TDFX product, and therefore a gaming product, whereas TNT is considered business. This product positioning is going to be a trick for TDFX, IMHO. But DZ thinks that when the market sees the capabilities of the Banshee that they will realize that it is also a great business performer.
-Speaking of TNT...I mentioned the PCGAMER.com news bit about the STB TNT numbers and ship date. He laughed (generally, a pretty happy guy). His opinion is that it will NOT be out Aug 15. And it will NOT reach the framerates stated in real applications. Reasons mentioned include tuning certain drivers for certain benchmarks, and the use of superfast sgram not widely available. TDFX seems to think that Banshee will compete very well with TNT. (my note- I hope so...that newsbit on PCGAMER looked goood (bad))
-Banshee boards should be available for retail by the end of August.
-Um, Dave...the PR sucks! He agreed completely! (is this good?) He and Ballard have discussed this and they agree that they need to do more PR. That is one of the reasons for the new PR company. It has taken a while for the transition to the new team, but we should see more stuff soon. (I'm waiting...)
-Confident of OEM wins...
A topic of discussion I was planning on bringing up (but didn't, thanks to the lack of discussion from my previous topic, selling boards direct) deals with Jeff's rumor #109- paying for game exclusives. This is common in the console market, such as Sony paying Eidos an undisclosed amount to make Tomb Raider for the Playstation only (console). I thought he would think me a total lunatic for mentioning something so absurd (though I'm sure at this point in the conversation he already knew I was a nut). Turns out, it ain't so crazy. This has been talked about a great deal, and they do have some kind of deal with ERTS and ATVI. (sorry, Electronic Arts and Activision). We may hear more about this in the future. (note: I think that this would be done in the following manner: TDFX only today, D3D patch in a month...)
-Are you planning any road shows? They plan on being at a DLJ thing in New York in Sept, and possibly doing a road show in Oct.
That's all for now, I hope it helps. Think I got just about everything I could think of (though I didn't ask about growth in Asia and Europe... DOH! Overall, my impression is that TDFX is very confident of their future.
JeffLins
PS. It should be noted that I have tried not to put a spin on this, and report the info as accurately as possible. There was nothing really groundbreaking here, so if you walk away thinking "wow, that's big!" you probably read too much into something. It should also be noted that though I got warm fuzzies from talking to Dave, I am biased and love the company and its products. So take what you will from this info. |
