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Technology Stocks : SNDT - Sand Technology - A diamond in the sand -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert Graber who wrote (919)	11/6/1998 8:36:00 AM
From: let	Respond to of 1200

Robert, there is both negative and positives in all this. We were all guided that things would be flat for the end of '98. So the loss really meant nothing to me personally. IMO EACH individual has to sort throught this on their own and make their decisions. The positives to me are, We are already finished with the first qtr. So that is 1 out of 2 of the bad qtrs behind us, and already into the second qtr...so therefore most of the bad is behind us. Sand has made significant progress in their marketing agreements. That is a plus going forward into the next calendar year. IBM and WYLE have huge potential when they are up to speed like Hitachi is now. I am reluctant to really give any opinions because AR said in the CC yesterday that "ONE sale could MAKE their year". So I really feel that whatever I say would probably turn out wrong. AR still sticks by his guns that '99 will be a "stellar" year. If he is right, the stock price should show a nice % gain from these levels. This stock is volatile as we have seen, it doesn't take alot to make it move significantly (just look at the charts for this year).. This is just my opinion, and I am sure if you talk to 10 others, you will get 10 different takes on it..I just hope that AR bit the bullet and sorta wrote off most of the bad in '98 and is now ready to move forward. Some of this is the growing pains that new co's go thru when the time comes that they have to throw lot's of cash into the business to mass market product. It sorta had to happen. Hopefully now it will begin to generate sales as a result of their efforts. Hope this helped. Let

To: Robert Graber who wrote (919)	11/10/1998 9:10:00 AM
From: let	Respond to of 1200

INTERVIEW - Cognos CEO upbeat on growth outlook November 9, 1998 08:10 PM Eric Auchard NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Cognos Inc. CA:CSN COGNF President Ron Zambonini said he expects long-term growth to pick up from current levels of just over 20 percent per year as fast-growing Internet software revenues displace sales of older products. In the near-term, the chief executive said in an interview on Friday he was confident Cognos can meet analysts' expectations for earnings and revenues for the rest of its fiscal year, which ends in February 1999. Over time, the company's growth rate will move closer to the 30 percent or better it is experiencing in its core data mining software business -- the area that should represent about three-quarters of the more than $300 million in revenues that analysts expect the company to report this year, he said. In addition, Cognos revenues from its 30-year-old line of mainframe software development tools should remain stable this year and not decline as originally expected, Zambonini said. However, he added that such revenues should decline over time. Referring to the 30 percent plus annual growth rate for the company's core data mining or so-called "business intelligence" software, Zambonini said "We see ourselves as being able to maintain that rate for some time." For the year, Wall Street is looking for revenues of around $304 million, up from $245 million in fiscal 1998 and for earnings of $1.35 per share for fiscal 1999 versus $1.11 per share last year, he said. "We're comfortable with 35 cents for the third quarter and we're comfortable with estimates for the full year," he said, referring to the third quarter consensus estimate and to projections for both revenues and earnings for fiscal 1999. Cognos is a leading supplier of so-called business intelligence software used by companies to track trends in key business operations by mining huge organizational databases. Measured in revenues from business intelligence software, Cognos has about 26 percent of the market, ahead of rivals Business Objects SA BOBJY , Brio Technology Inc. BRYO and units of Oracle Corp. ORCL and Seagate Technology Inc. SEG , Zambonini said, citing industry statistics. He said Microsoft's MSFT new thrust into the database management market is a watershed event for the business intelligence industry and should help further legitimate the uses of such software and expand Cognos' potential market. Microsoft is set to announce next week its long-awaited SQL Server 7.0 database system, which allows companies to run their corporate databases over low-cost personal computer networks. "We believe the market is now going to shift toward medium-sized and smaller companies," Zambonini said of Microsoft's effect on the market for database tools, which now largely consists of the world's largest 2,000 or so companies. Sales of the company's newer Internet-ready products are fueling the company's growth and will account for half of the $230 million in revenue that analysts project from business intelligence products this year, Zambonini said. The company's data mining software tools, which previously were designed to operate on closed local area networks, now run over company intranets, or Internet-based office networks. Fueled by the need to update older computer systems to make them ready for the Year 2000 date changeover, the older Cognos revenue stream should hold steady at $70 million for the year ending in February, unchanged from year-ago levels, he said. ((-- Eric Auchard, New York newsdesk, 212-859-1840)) REUTERS