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Technology Stocks : Osicom(FIBR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CH who wrote (8283)	9/17/1998 10:08:00 PM
From: Ploni	Respond to of 10479

People on Yahoo suggest Par's going to be starting a new business, as he's done such a fine job with Osicom. I think a Pizza Parlor was mentioned as one possibility. Regarding Osicom's planned liquidation, perhaps I can buy the Osicom name. That way I can be CEO, after all. :-)

To: CH who wrote (8283)	9/18/1998 12:45:00 AM
From: David Wise	Respond to of 10479

From listening to the conference call, no, this is not a resignation. But the effect will be the same, once the IPO's are done, and after the stock is distributed to stockholders. There were questions about the reason for spinning off the remaining Osicom business and leaving a shell that would then be dead after the final stock distribution. Par's answer was that this would finally separate the Osicom notoriety from its spin-offs and allow them to achieve financial industry and market growth. Are there better, less expensive ways to do this? Maybe. More effective? Probably not! Sure, Par could resign, but the Osicom name probably carries the Barron's et al burden for years. A name change doesn't work very well in my opinion. As Par said, maybe he can find some hours to be with his children after all of this is over. There was plenty of good news. To me, the best news is that they plan to distribute the remaining 53% of NetSilicon stock to Osicom shareholders. Will also consider doing this as pure IPO vs. rights offering. Second good news, Media One has 13 or 14 market areas. Our first GigaMux sale is in the Atlanta market, which alone could reach a multi-million dollar market for FIBR. With luck, the other markets, which are already considering, could be added. Texas Utilities is also very large with many subsidiaries or whatever they're called. Much room for growth. One caller commented that the way things are lining up, it looked like they should be seeing sales fall in one after the other from this point. Osicom answer: "should and are" or "should and will" or something like that. Someone asked if their projection at last call that sales would be around $22 million this quarter was still valid. Par answered very much valid. By the way, between the two GigaMux sales announced, Osicom's competitors included Lucent and Nortel. Apparently Osicom's winning point was that they have it, now - ready to deliver. When these networking companies finish their financial studies and conclude that the best-cost solution is DWDM, they are ready to get on with installation. Promises that "we'll have a product that will meet your needs in about 6 months" won't cut it with these companies. Plus, Osicom's products are second generation while others are still in first generation in terms of such as scalability, flexibility, interoperability and such factors. Also good news - CS First Boston and any others have NOT converted their Preferreds to date. In fact, the current limit would only allow a maximum of about 300,000 new shares at this time. If they were allowed to convert all of their shares at today's prices it would add about 4 million shares for a total outstanding of 11 or 12 million shares. Of course as it now stands, they couldn't convert more than 300 something thousand. The plan is to use proceeds from the Hong Kong sale to redeem some or all preferreds and/or buy back shares. No question my preference would be to buy back convertible preferreds. By the way, doesn't the very fact that there are limitations of this nature (which has been clear ever since the SEC filing date) which prevent mass conversion all at once kind of take away the "floorless" issue? Sure, they can convert some at the lowest market price reached. But there are limitations, thus not a full floorless. I know all of the "experts" on this thread have voiced opinions honestly, but bottom line is that CS First Boston is a reputable company that doesn't want a bad reputation for ruining a company's stock price. I believe Par, here, when he says that after due diligence, CS First Boston invested because they saw a longer term high potential for growth in this company and will probably hold on to the stock. Certainly they are not in this to drive the price down the manipulator's way - selling short and covering. I might hold my spin-off stock in both new companies long term. The company conference call was excellent! If you haven't listened, pull up the news report on Business Wire, PR Newswire, or just through Yahoo or whoever, get the replay telephone number and call. It's about 1 1/2 hours long, but well worth listening to for all investors.