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Technology Stocks : 3DFX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Casey who wrote (12431)	5/11/1999 12:16:00 PM
From: Obewon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

I'm long on the company but I have to admit the company made several major mistakes. (Hindsight is nice of course!) Mistake 1: Voodoo Rush (no comments necessary, the part stank!) Mistake 2: Sold Voodoo2 chips to too many boardmakers. Competition at the retail level depressed what should have been an even more profitable period for the industry. Mistake 3: Failed to monitor customer demand and allowed the supply channel to become glutted with Voodoo2 chips and boards leading to the disastrous 3Q98. Mistake 4: Failed to get Banshee out on time. By the time it was released Nvidia's TNT design was clearly superior. Mistake 5: Have publicly stated that OEM sales are critical but have failed (so far) in its efforts to move into the OEM space. Rumors continue to swirl that the combined 3dfx/STB may not be able to handle both the retail demand and initial major OEM demand. Obewon

To: Casey who wrote (12431)	5/11/1999 12:49:00 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 16960

I'd like to add to Obewon's list: - Overestimated the demand for Voodoo2 late in the cycle - Severly underestimated the demand for Banshee - Banshee was a bit too late for the back to school season; this was a major miss on the schedule - Ignored (still does?) OEM check-point demands like full AGP compliance and 32bit redering - Did not put a collar on stock price for the merger - Announced the merger with STB without considering the TNT inventory at STB or their existing contracts with CREAF and DIMD In terms of their responsiblities as a public company: - Chose a poor underwritter that did not support them after the quiet period - Has been too secretive and non-responsive to investor questions (e.g. "half of your revenue comes from EU, who will be your distributor after the merger" or "have you secured enough production capacity for the expected demand"), thereby increasing the uncertainity over the stock - Has not disclosed anything remotely resembling a road map so that their success can be properly assessed And of course, as far as PR goes, they stink. They seem to think that they are in charge of super power army, when in reality their resources lend themself best to a guerilla warfare. Sun "since you asked" Tzu