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Friday, February 06, 1998 Thursday, Iomega closed at $10 5/16, up $3/16 (+1.85%). TODAY'S RECAP: A small rise in stock price yesterday continued to contribute to an upbeat mood among posters. For no good reason (except perhaps the announcement of a new Polaroid digital camera using Intel flash memory), Clik! was the subject of choice yesterday as posters compared functionality, price and convenience to existing alternatives. Also, ~Kirporprik~ spent a good deal of time addressing concerns about a number of Iomega's current strategies and past decisions -- as well as admonishing others on the board on how to restore the value of it. Enjoy! INDEX: Use the Search or Find feature of your word processor to locate the article number (Find: 1++, 3++, etc.) - or use AOL's Edit>>Find in Top Window Feature. If Find in Top Window is dimmed, just click on some text, anything, in the IOM Today window and try again.
1++ Blifil comments on IOM sponsorship of sports events and/or teams.
Recap written and posts compiled by TMF Weekly. _______________________________ And now, the Best of the Board...Started 11:00pm ET 2/4/98. 1+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: Clik! Beat The Bulls << Iomega sponsered tonights game between the Jazz and the Bulls. >> So how much could it cost to get Utah to change their name to the Jaz? The word "jazz" is begining to look like a misspelling to me now anyway. On a related note, the Jaz(z) came to LA the other night and had their heads handed to them by the Clippers. Imagine that. The only bigger embarrassment here in sports is the fact that there is no NFL team in town. Considering that, it probably would NOT be a good idea for IOM to cough up the cash to get their name changed to the the LA Clikkers. We will, we will, Clik! you! (clikit-clikit) Just marking time 'til the next conspiracy... 2+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: Syquest picks Bozell << Is it possible the Syqt. drive can be produced and sold that much cheaper than Jaz? Could they have a design that is cheaper to build? >> Not only possible, but more than likely. The JAZ is a higher-end drive than the SparQ. JAZ2 more so. SparQ is a low-end storage product. Jaz has SCSI and SCSI2 interface, much more expensive to incorporate them, but the rewards are obvious when comparing the two. Syjet is definitely a step above the SparQ, but probably not as graceful as Jaz. The Quest product, if released, should have that market (however big it is), all to itself. In my opinion, Iomega probably gets a 20 - 24% GM on Jaz drives, obviously higher on the disks. IO was pretty free about the price reductions on Jaz1, and I would expect another drop soon. I would expect Iomega at some point in the future to have Jaz 1 marketed to the same segment as the SparQ. I really think that the Jaz2 is vastly overpriced for a mass-market device, and will continue to be marketed to the higher-end users that currently await its arrival. I also think IO should have separate divisions; a consumer products division for products such as Jaz1, Zip, Ditto; and a second, high-end division to offer the premium products. That would be in the future, as they currently have no lineup. I don't know how many SparQ's and Syjet's Syquest has to sell to make a profit, but I would venture a guess that both production rates and tie ratios would have to increase many, many times the current rates for this to occur. 3+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: Back to where we should have been Well....hurray! We're about where I would have expected we could be (about 10 1/2) based on missing estimates by a penny (or 2 based on how you look at it). I blame all the rest on the lame conference call and the tremendous hit we took in the aftermarket that day which led to follow-up panic selling. Me included (to a limited extent) since I bet way too much on this one and was margined out the ying yang. Stupid! Not the margining on this stock but the margining to this extent on any stock. (I will paste a big note on my computer screen so that this will truly be a lesson remembered.) Ah, so where from here? Well first it's disheartening to see that we've apparently lost some (a lot?) of the long term posters and have picked up a couple of jerks. Hopefully, the situation will change. Obviously Kim is still playing poker with 4-hole cards and not just one which makes it hard for investors as well as the analysts. I mean really, what the heck difference would it have made whether the legal fees were 50 million or 50 thousand. Nada, in my opinion. On the one hand "we'll defend zip to the hilt no matter the cost and we're winning by the way" or on the other "we can defend it at little cost." But nope, it's a secret. It's hard for analysts (like Kuntsler who seemed to really want to make a realistic model) to reach a number with no input OR disclosure by management. Besides, I as an investor want to know. Okay, as long as I'm getting everything off my chest... Kim, please think through your next presentation more thoroughly. As an example of messy communication was "the increase in the rate of growth is slowing but growth is increasing" (NOT an actual quote...not even English but rather some accounting language I believe). And then to compound the problem by NOT, at any point, being able to explain what you meant to the analysts was, in a word, bad. Further, I wonder if KIM feels this company is solid gold which others will recognize in time or whether he is afraid of potential lawsuits based on forward-looking statements. Truly, a couple of posters here were able within days, if not hours, to provide him with a much better presentation of the material than he was able to come up with even though he must have had a lot longer to consider what he would say in the conference call. Also, I think it's ill-advised to say we will make no concessions on the pricing of our products. I've tried slicing it a dozen different ways but with the pricing discrepancy between Jaz and SparQ, I believe SparQ is and will continue to hurt Jaz until either quality control problems with SparQ are proven or Syquest finally goes belly up. Another concern I've had over the last couple of months is in looking through the mail-order catalogs and circulars I receive and seeing the common practice of those companies charging the exact same price for Zip, LS-120, and EZFlyer. (Obviously, on some occasions one or the other advertised at a better price than the others but, by and large, usually they each had the same price.) I don't want to see that. I want people to know Zip is the best, it's most prevalent, and it's the best bang for the buck...give me a standard $99 price retail and I'll sell an extra million of them easy. good points: OEM inclusion rate going up. Yes! This will be a boon for us even though tie ratios in the near term are down. Taking my own case, I'm a computer phobic (but I married well and she allows me to cry "help" often) and when I bought my system I tried to get the best I could at that time including a 17" monitor versus the standard 15". Next on the list to buy was software. Next was a bubble-jet printer. Next was more software and supplies. Next for me was a Zip and a 3-pack of disks (which was good because my hard drive was on its last legs and we got to copy all our data files before it died); however, had scanner prices been as low then as they are now I might have gotten a scanner first and then a Zip. BUT if the Zip had been standard in the box I would not have said take it out so I can save a few bucks. It would have taken me a while though before I would have chosen to spend money on more than one disk. Gotta have all the cool software first. Clik! potential. Still nothing factored into the stock price s far as I can figure for this. My shortsightedness? People think it's vaporware? (Oops, I guess Wired does.) People think it's going to be too little too late? Or is the stock price going to jump 4 to 6 points once the first or second Clik! products come out? 4+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: Back to where we should have been II Also, I for one am considering a ditto max pro for backup. Reasonable price (maybe $50 more than I would like to pay) and it certainly seems big enough for the next computer I'll buy (and my wife can swap it for me). What can we do on this board? 1. Ferret out info which this board has done supendously in the past. And still does. I would not have understood the close up to 10 1/8 after yesterday's close without someone's having found the three articles and provided a link to them. 2. Channel checks which the people on this board have proven to be good at. This time it's like a two-fold process: monitoring that Zips are selling, yes, but also level of inventory--is it too much? A subjective question but one we need to find a way to quantify since Kim held back for 6 weeks of inventory in the channel as opposed to 4. 3. Watching commercials and assessing impact. We're already getting a bunch of sightings and thoughts about them. Good. I can't contribute much in that reqard since I watch little TV. I did tape the pre-game and post-game in addition to the superbowl. My own thoughts were that the Bermuda Triangle was pretty good, but could have been better and where was the tie-in to IOM's website with the vacation escape promo?? Did I miss it? The family one was good--again I think some posters have already worked out how it could be even more effective. Maybe as an ongoing ever-changing and attention-getting series. I liked the cargo plane--first time I saw it. The voice-over ws good and built suspense and the Zip built-in logo at the end is the right approach to making "impressions." This board has also come up with a couple of good ad plans and I hope the agency comes up with the same or better ideas. 4. Need some help. What else should we be doing? 5+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: Clik on Wired News :( << Purchased the Sony Mavica 7 Digital Camera for hubby for xmas, I believe that's the newest model...Cables what cables? I never would have bought this camera for hubby if had to hook up cables to computer to down load.. Once the disc is filled up with all the wonderful snap shots... I get approximately 55 shots per disc, out it comes and pop this one in my computer or download later, pop a new disc into the Camera and we're off to the races again.... No cables here nor want cables >> ..great, I'm glad you're enjoying your new camera.. ..but 55 pictures on a 1.44MB disc??.. ..HELLLOOOO????.. ..19KB/photo??.. ..those are NOT photographs...at least not good ones...not even close.. ..the daguerreotype was one of the SHARPEST 'photographic' techniques ever developed.. ..and photography has been downhill ever since.. ..even the earliest color photographs, (on early Kodachrome) make today's pictures look like crap.. ..look, enjoy your camera, take lots of pictures.. ..but remember this.. ..you're producing a legacy of lost information with that camera....just as the early transformer did to music recorded in the 60's and 70's.. ..trust me, your pictures were MUCH better off left to real film and a disposable camera.. ..granted, you lose the 'instant' appeal that you have with digital, but at least you might leave your children, and their children, something they can hang on their walls.. ..ughh.. ..maybe the Clik! will enable better snapshots??.. ..19KB/picture.. ..unreal.. 6+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: European Litigation rulings It seems the French courts are making sure Nomai can compete on the home turf. << The Paris District Court also ruled that a portion of Iomega's Zip cartridge identification software sequence, recorded on all Zip disks, is not protectable under French copyright law. >> << In a separate ruling issued in France on Jan. 30, 1998, the Paris District Court denied Iomega's pre-emptive request for a preliminary injunction, filed in November 1997, against Nomai's manufacture, sale and distribution of disks claimed by Nomai to be compatible with Iomega Jaz(R) drives. The denial was based in part on the fact that Iomega's Jaz cartridge related patents, which have issued in the U.S., are still pending in France. The Paris Court's Jaz related decision has been appealed by Iomega and the Jaz-related claims on the merits are still pending. >> Nomai can compete in France.... big deal. I'd be surprised if things were any different. The real battle is over the rest of the EU and the USA. In my opinion, any victory in France for IOM is big. 7+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: Clik on Wired News :( << I never would have bought this camera for hubby if had to hook up cables to computer to down load. >> None of the rest of them work that way, though. All of them on the market now but the mavica have flash memory and all have to download either through cables or some kind of infrared transfer, which i neglected to mention. someone has probably corrected me. clik! disks will be 40mb as opposed to 1.4 in a floppy, so the capacity will be far, far larger once (in theory) cliks are built into the cameras themselves. then you'll be simply taking the clik! disk out of the back of the camera, the same way you do the with mavica, and plugging into a clik! drive permanently stuck into the back of your computer Or i suppose into a Buz), the same way your modem or printer is attached, so you'll have same convenience. more interesting than the mavica's use of the floppy disk is Sony's HiFi drive -- I wonder if that showed up on Wired's vaporware list? Might that depend on how much advertising Wired gets from Sony? -- and how it might be adapted for use with digital cameras, providing it doesn't consume too much energy. at the beginning very few people are going to want to hassle with clik! drives, -- certainly i'd buy a mavica before I'd buy a clik! drive PLUS a digital camera -- but they could come in handy anyway in the industries I named where the storage size and practicality would outweigh any incovenience. but in the beginning, as a mass consumer item I think we can expect clik's to add nothing at all to the bottom line. however, the 1.44 is absolutely useless for the other gadgets clik! is supposed to fit into -- pdas, cell phones, voice recording stuff, etc. -- and so would the Sony HiFi be out of the question because of its size. _______________________________ End Report. Posts covered through 11:00pm ET 2/5/98. _______________________________
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