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 : The New QLogic (ANCR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (17734)	8/16/1998 2:11:00 PM
From: Craig Stevenson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29386

Christine, You are certainly not the only one who lacks confidence in Ancor's management. After the last quarter's numbers, my own confidence was shaken to the core. I was braced for a $1 Million quarter, and the usual $2-3 Million loss. It has taken me a long time to regain some level of comfort with holding ANCR long term. Roy Sardina's comments have helped tremendously. Simply put, if the SAN market isn't there yet, then Ancor's management team can't do anything about it, except to make sure the MKII is competitive in that market. That also means that Ancor's management has been forthcoming with investors, but there just hasn't been anything positive to tell thus far. Don't get me wrong, I still have doubts. After seeing the value of my IRA shares decline ten-fold, I better have some doubts. <g> On the other hand, the bottom is in sight, and the risks are known. I don't think any of us that have followed ANCR for any length of time thought the stock would ever trade down here. (Nor did we think we would ever see a quarter like we just saw.) If Ancor fails to capture some of the SAN market, ONCE IT MATERIALIZES, then it will be time to bail out. In the meantime, there is nothing wrong with being VERY cautious. There are still a bunch of sellers out there. If Steve is right, that should subside later this week as the Reg D guys lock in their conversion price, but I don't know where the selling is coming from. Because of the lack of performance, I think there will be time to jump on board once Ancor shows us an OEM contract or some significant improvement in their revenue stream. On the technology front, it is almost impossible for the average investor to know how the MKII compares to the competition. Reading between the lines, and incorporating some of the rumors, I am tempted to believe that the MKII is quite competitive at the hardware level, but may need some feature enhancements in the switch firmware and management software. These things are certainly doable, and the recent software upgrade may have already addressed some of these shortcomings. I agree with George Dawson and others, that what is needed is some sort of head to head test. Unfortunately, I don't think we will get that until Fibre Channel become mainstream enough for one of the networking magazines to do the test and publish the results. Craig

To: Grainne who wrote (17734)	8/16/1998 8:59:00 PM
From: John E. Mansfield	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29386

To all: I have done a significant amount business analysis in the high tech sector and I have an opinion on the current situation. I don't believe that the current management team has had time to execute a business plan for the market they find themselves in today. Sellling in the OEM space for SANs is vastly different than selling to end users for LANs that Steve O'Hara et.al. attempted two years ago. The pieces have not been in place long enough to make a call as to their abilities, though if Brocade and McData start announcing deals I will become much more concerned. As for last quarters revenue, mute point, Ancor exited a laggard niche market with nominal sales in an attempt to enter the mass market (which SANs are believed to be). Do not under estimate the complexities and effort required to redirect your entire business strategy. I just hope Ken knows what he is doing. John