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Technology Stocks : Adaptec (ADPT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (3479)	8/21/1998 4:28:00 AM
From: Larry J.	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 5944

I attended the shareholders meeting 8/20. Unfortunately, I agree that the meeting was a big disappointment. Following the perfunctory voting for the propositions (which all passed), Larry Boucher jumped immediately into a Q & A period. He pleaded the fact that he has been on board for only 2 1/2 weeks and therefore had only limited information but would defer to the board as required. I found Mr. Boucher to be completely ill-prepared for any question of substance. He spoke in vaguries and generalities only. I directly asked whether they expected to break even per the conference call comments by Grant Savier during the last conference call and if they expected a resumption of top line growth during the 2nd half. He completely skirted the issue, and the directors remained "mum" as well throughout the entire meeting. I also asked whether they saw any improvement in the Disc Drive Industry per recent reports and about the INTC rumor. I received no comment whatsoever on the DD question and the expected B.S. equating to no comment on the INTC issue. Re: a new CFO, Boucher indicated that the search is ongoing but commended the team in place following the many years of excellent service of Hansen (CFO) and O'Meara (Treasurer). I quickly reminded him of the last three consecutive earnings estimate misses, and advised him to give better guidance to the street since it (1st Call) is the yard stick with which Wall Street measures value. He agreed. Jim Switz asked a series of questions about insider buying (lack thereof), Symbios, and others submitted by the thread. I ceased note taking at this time and will defer to Jim to post his notes upon his return on Sunday or so. Although, Boucher indicated that in reference to Symbios (and pulling out before the vote by the FTC), they had been advised in advance that the deal was going to be soundly rejected. He went on to say essentially that the the more they got into the deal and completed due diligence the less they liked it. Really sounded like they may have just elected to cut their losses. Boucher did indicate that a conference call would be held during the current quarter to discuss "the story"........return to core, getting out of the sub-system business, SCSI & RAID still alive and well, and focus on the server market. I walked away from the meeting with less confidence. Boucher (or Adler) did nothing to instill confidence or to change the prevailing sentiment. Larry

To: The Philosopher who wrote (3479)	8/24/1998 10:50:00 AM
From: Jim Switz	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 5944

Just wanted to post briefly that I'm finally back from Bay Area. Will read through all the messages since I left and see if I can fill in anything at this late date. I took a fair amount of notes and will write something up. Overall impression: they're trying to buy time with shareholders for a few weeks while putting together a coherent vision of management intentions. Can't fault them for not commenting on financial expectations; this wasn't an analyst-guidance conference (if they had made new projections without analysts in attendance, all hell would probably break loose) and they probably don't have enough info themselves yet to even know how things will be when the quarter closes. I don't recall them addressing an "Intel buyout" specifically at this meeting, but this was specifically denied at the employee meeting a couple of weeks ago and I think has been reported elsewhere. I do believe that a hostile takeover (by Intel, Carl Icahn, some other raider - who knows?) is probably management's biggest external fear right now. One thing Boucher is trying to make clear is confidence that the company has faced much bigger challenges in the past (when Boucher and Adler were both in management positions) than now, and that they can fix this mess. We'll see. If it hasn't been posted already, note that a conference call is scheduled during the quarter, and will be widely publicized as opposed to the usual "analyst-only" CCs.