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Technology Stocks : Concurrent Computer (CCUR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don Hand who wrote (7200)	2/18/1999 8:05:00 AM
From: ENOTS	Respond to of 21143

I still worry that a HUGE CONTRACT will be let, and no mention of CCUR will appear anywhere in the announcement! That will be the pattern as has been used in the past. And where, or when does anyone expect a recommendation from a large brokerage house???????? They are picking SFA, Time Warner and others but the small companies are left in the dust for the buzzards to pick over looking for a tiny piece of meat, that is the CCUR holders! Whine Whine Whine!!!!!! Where is this post wrong??? If all these tests are running, what is wrong with saying the mediahawk is involved??? or CCUR is a supplier to this test....explain please!!!! Just little public info is being dispensed!!!

To: Don Hand who wrote (7200)	2/18/1999 8:55:00 AM
From: jeffbas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21143

I purposely do not own so much stock that I lose sleep, precisely because it is a "lose-sleep" kind of stock and Mr. Olivier's sound trading strategy is not my style. However, if you go back to mgmt's statements a year or more ago (and this is from memory), we have a lot less VOD revenue than predicted. I frankly have learned over many years to be highly suspicious of statements like we can't talk about it because our partners won't allow it. Most of the time there is nothing to talk about because at best the company is in what amounts to a development stage. In investing the most logical explanation of something is usually the best. I believe that Corky'sGirl posted on Yahoo something like VOD servers were going out the door without invoices on them. Clearly the most logical explanation for CCUR is that VOD is at this time basically a development stage business. I do happen to believe that there will eventually be a lot of excitement over VOD once it gets into some peoples homes and Wall Street starts looking for plays in the area. CCUR even if it is never very successful in VOD will be one of the plays in my opinion and go much higher for a short while or a long while depending on the role it will eventually have. That time is when it will be crucial to distinguish which is the case because then if CCUR will not have a major role failing to sell will cause you to leave an enormous amount on the table -- but that time is not now. Therefore, with the above stated view and strategy, I now spend very little emotional or mental energy on this stock. If my view is correct, there is no need to. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who believes that this is not a sound investment strategy for this company.

To: Don Hand who wrote (7200)	2/18/1999 10:10:00 AM
From: Nimbus	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 21143

Field experience WARNING: IF YOU ONLY LIKE TO READ HIGHLY OPTOMISTIC INFORMATION, THEN PLEASE SKIP WHAT FOLLOWS. WHAT YOU READ MAY BE DISTURBING. THIS INFORMATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR THOSE WITH HEART CONDITIONS, POORLY BALANCED PORTFOLIOS, OR WEAR ROSE COLORED GLASSES. PROCEED AT YOU OWN RISK. There is little doubt that IVOD will happen, but I take issue with the rate of deployment, that's all. Those who think that you can jump into production, or even limited production, without spending at least a year debugging the SERVICE in at least 2 Residential headends where hundreds-to-thousands of streams can be active 24 hours a day, is unreasonable. No one is going to deploy a service that has not undergone serious and thorough testing in the field first ..... that would be a reputation and financial disaster for all involved, and further tarnish the already stained image of cable cos viewed by the public and by the investor community. Case and point is the Industry Leading DIVA ONSET service, now generating revenue in 5 sites and being tested in 2 new sites. The first install was in 1996 for testing, which took over a year. As large and as well financed as DIVA is, it would have been difficult to successfully deploy AND OPERATE more than these 7 sites over this period. What is not well understood is the staffing it takes at the headend to operate and maintian a 24 hour 7 day a week VOD service, with constant changeover of content. Most headends have a small staff with maybe one or two Vo-Tech technical guys per shift. It is a major culture shock to have to staff up to operate and maintain some of the worlds most sophisticated equipment, especially a system that has 1000 customers paying $5.99/movie ($3/hr) who each calls-in for a refund for each glitch they experience. Though the revenue is good (1000x$3x24=$72K/day), it comes with it's set of severe headaches for cable operators. Also, do you think that at $72K/day of revenue that they care a whole lot about the lowest cost per stream supplier ??? They will only buy a system that is exceptionally solid and requires only a small staff to operate and maintain. If that does not come about, then "farming out" the service to a company like DIVA is the only option if you want to provide VOD to your customers. I think you all will be surprised on how this all plays out. As for CCUR, the MediaHawk is likely reasonably ready for testing with real residential customers, but it is only part of the bigger puzzle leading towards success of residential VOD, and the rest of the COMPLEX SERVICE (encoding, billing, menuing, routing, ....) is having to be stitched together, debugged, and supported by a set of skilled technicians and operators before any of it is going to go anywhere. History has shown that this is not an overnight process, and those who follow in DIVA's footprints will take about the same time to get to where DIVA is now. Some would argue that with the simultaneous deployment of digital, cable modems, and other interactive services, that the issues become significantly more complex and are less easy to solve, again affecting the time-line. I'm sure these realities are driving CCUR crazy, though they are positioned about as well as one could be. With Corporate and Hospitality now becoming less attracted to hardware-based VOD servers due to the recent release of a variety of low-cost Software-based VOD running on standard UNIX and NT machines, residential is the last-best hope for custom VOD box suppliers. Taking all this into consideration, results in terms of significant orders, revenue and profit from VOD is still quite a ways out, and if you believe otherwise you can only blame yourself for being disappointed along the way. Good Luck to all.