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Technology Stocks : VALENCE TECHNOLOGY (VLNC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jean1057 who wrote (11468)	5/27/1999 12:24:00 AM
From: William Epstein	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27311

jean claude Pfister; Your thoughts are reasonable and it is another way to approach the problem. Also, the idea of a buyout has occurred to me too. Very often the giants buy up the company to get the patents if they feel it is cheaper than infringement and the lawsuits that go with it. Sometimes, they do it anyway. Like Kodak and Poleroid. I never thought that VLNC would try to corner a global market. That's dreaming. It has been my experience that even if you have the cure for cancer the big companies are bastards to do business with unless they think you don't need them. In other words, you have the manufacturing capability to produce and market without them. This gives you the leverage you need to negotiate or they will ignore you, infringe upon your patents, etc. That is where these guys have the experience and capital to pull it off. The big payoff may be a buyout or if not, then being involved in enough joint ventures to generate the revenues without having to develop their own markets, which can take years. They are too old to be that patient. Al Shugart is certainly no stranger to marketing and licensing patents. However, to think that you can sit back, simply license patents and collect is a pipe dream. Remember, the famous story about the guy who invented the cathode ray tube and RCA. They let his patent run out then they took it. TV was possible in 1929 and shown at the 1933 World's Fair. He also invented the electron microscope and got nothing for that too. These were far more important patents than anything VLNC has. My father-in-law invented the Turbo-fill Centralizer essential on every oil rig in the world today. Standard Oil of Calf. infringed upon it and fought him in court until he was broke. His settlement just covered the legal bills. In the meantime, they had used it for 15 years. Whatever happens, it is not going to happen as fast as you think. That is the real world. PHOTOMAN