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Technology Stocks : Disk Drive Sector Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Oliver who wrote (6218)	5/4/1999 12:04:00 PM
From: LK2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

Mark, most posters think QNTM's stock value lies in the DLT tracking stock. If you buy QNTM now, you get the DLT tracking stock when it's issued, and then you can decide on whether to hold on to the disk drive portion... Will this strategy really work (beat the market, or beat the sector)? Who knows? But on a short-term basis, it's probably a worthwhile bet. What will it take for QNTM (the current stock) to outperform the market? Apart from fundamental factors, which have a flexible/fluid relationship to stock price anyway, if market sentiment suddenly decides that QNTM is now a "value play" or whatever the flavor of the day is called, then QNTM could pop. April was Cyclicals month (basic industries like metals). What month will they choose for QNTM? Regards, Larry PS--Tracking stock is more a financial game than a real company, at least in the short term (less than a few years). But packaging counts on Wall Street. Whatever helps to sell the product... And some time in the distant future the tracking stock division could actually be spun off as a separate company, or sold, or whatever. But in the meantime, the tracking stock could provide a currency for the company. And the tracking stock could (hopefully) provide some price appreciation for the stockholders.

To: Mark Oliver who wrote (6218)	5/4/1999 12:27:00 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

Mark, <<Is it safe to say what hurts EMC, hurts Seagate?>> Well, yes, but SEG sells a lot to HWP as well. And my guess is, to Hitachi as well. <<Is the market more prepared for bad news than good news?>> Unquestionably true for this sector. On the other hand, as we/I have noted on myriad occasions in the past, it has proven impossible--for me at least--to predict when a pop will come in these stocks. QNTM's split into tracking stocks is an obvious time for a pop, but these companies have surprised so many times both on the downside and the upside that it would no longer be surprising to me if we are all surprised by what occurs, and after an initial pop up, the DLT stub goes back down, and after an initial pop down, the HD stub goes back up, with the two of them valued at [whisper]. Not very surprising, is it? <vbg>

To: Mark Oliver who wrote (6218)	5/4/1999 12:31:00 PM
From: Robert Douglas	Respond to of 9256

Mark, I don't own EMC so I'm not an expert, but isn't HP essentially just a "distributor" for EMC? I think the boxes that HP sells still have the EMC name on them and are serviced by EMC guys. The Hitachi product has been in competition with EMC and this is only bad if the new HP connection now results in Hitachi taking market share. -Robert

To: Mark Oliver who wrote (6218)	5/5/1999 9:16:00 AM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

On EMC, HP, Hitachi, EMC's response: Message 9322409 EMC is one confident company. The word "cocky" doesn't even begin to do it justice. An excerpt: <<At this point, the reseller agreement with HP is still in place. EMC will simply plan on taking more business directly. We have built the field force substantially over the past year in order to execute such a plan. Over the past year, EMC's SG&A has increased from 18.5% to 19.9%. At the same time our gross margin has increased 520 basis points, from 48.0% to 53.2%. We have the infrastructure in place to get the business directly if need be and we have the most important ingredients for success in the sophisticated market for high end storage.>>