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Technology Stocks : Energy Conversion Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Fabeyes who wrote (2994)	1/18/1999 10:58:00 PM
From: Michael Latas	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 8393

I certainly don't want to appear to be disrespectful to your comments, but, I still feel Micron is a possibility. Their present technology can only carry them so far, then they are going to have to do something different. The competition is going to bring this about. Again, this is merely my opinion. Believe me when I tell you that I have the deepest respect for your comments. I just happen to have some very strong opinion on this subject. That, in and of itself, does not make it a fact. But, my opinion, none-the-less. Simplot, changed his mind when confronted by a mutiny in the past and therefore has set precedent in that respect. He did it before and he is capable of doing it again. Simplot is approaching ninety years of age, providing he is still alive and of sound mind. The meter is ticking off. Something is going to change. Micron still has their two and a half billion dollar plant in mothballs, the last I heard. How long can they afford to take those kind of losses? In particular, with Tyler Lowery, their former VP of Technology no longer with them. He is not the type of person that is so readibly replaceable. Something is going to have to change. Micron's technology will not be current or competitive fore-ever more. On another note, for what it's worth, a photo appeared in Detroit well over a year ago showing Andy Grove talking with Bob Stempel and Stan Ovshinsky. When a question was asked as to what was going on in regard to this get-to-gether, the answer was that we, ECD, Stan and Bob were friends with Andy. Now, you can draw your own conclusions on this subject. The truth of the matter is that ECD has indeed developed some very unique advanced memory technology. Whether we will ever be successful in bringing it to market remains to be seen. The way it was explained to us at a shareholders meeting a couple of years ago was that our technology could be produced in a continuous roll method, vs six or eight inch wafers at a fraction of the cost of the current technology and at the same time offer greater features and benefits over existing technology. Tyler was exposed to our technology while we had our joint venture with Micron. So, he knew what we had going for us. So does Micron. Now that he has joined our firm this should bode very well for us. He could have joined any one of a number of firms with his credentials. He choose ECD and we greeted him with open arms and respect, otherwise he would not be in this new joint venture with us. Again, in my opinion, it is simply a matter of a very short period of time before we negotiate a joint venture with another company, or consortium. Whether it turns out to be Micron, or Intel, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Sony, or whomever, they will have to be a major league player to be in a position to front the $250 million or so dollars to get this new venture started, and have some very deep pockets, to the tune of another billion or two dollars, to get this new technology into mass production over the next two or three years. This is what I see unfolding. Again, my opinion does not make this out to be an absolute fact. It's simply my deduction. I guess it remains to be seen. 1999 is going to be a very interesting year for us. I appreciate your comments. Don't let up. Regards.