ESCOM takes a dive
Kerry Ferrand
mentioned on a CNN International financial show. It mentioned that the
value of its stock had dropped 25% after the company announced that it
failed to make a profit in 1995. This can't be a positive development re
Amiga Tech.
K
Aaron Smith
KF> I was just flipping through TV channels and heard the name Escom
KF> mentioned on a CNN International financial show. It mentioned that the
KF> value of its stock had dropped 25% after the company announced that it
KF> failed to make a profit in 1995. This can't be a positive development re
KF> Amiga Tech.
Remeber tho, IBM USA took HUGE profit losses a mere 3 years ago, their
stock dropped heavy, the critics were saying goodbye.. and now look, they are
kicking serious butt.. Buying Lotus, designing some nice hardware and pumping
out PPC chips. Who knows, maybe Escoms main line could be the Amiga ;)
We could have the US vs Europe, PC clones vs Amiga. the great war.
10,000,000 PPC620 Amigas sold a year :)
"Amiga, computers for people who want more than just a PC."
Finger mus...@vrb.com in...@vrb.com rec...@vrb.com w...@vrb.com
A3000 Warped 040/40Mhz 16MB/2gigs, 17 serial ports, OS3.1
A4000Tower 060 or PPC soon!
Kenneth C. Nilsen
KF> mentioned on a CNN International financial show. It mentioned that the
KF> value of its stock had dropped 25% after the company announced that it
KF> failed to make a profit in 1995. This can't be a positive development re
KF> Amiga Tech.
Don't worry. Stocks are up and down and will raise when Escom annouce
something positiv again (whatever). It's all in the sales and when the Amiga
1200 is out in February I think Escom/AT can get some profit again.
Sincerly,
---
\\ Kenneth C. Nilsen __ CREATIVE LINKS
\X/ ken...@norconnect.no /\_\ http://www.norconnect.no/~kenneth/
\/_/
< Software developer - IA MultiMedia - System - Graphix - Sound - Utilities >
---
"Why should the human imagination be the limit of what is possible?" -KCN
Michael Kraemer
> I was just flipping through TV channels and heard the name Escom
Don't forget that ESCOM still is a PC-shifting company with a very very narrow
profit margin. In '95 they made large acquisitions, not only C=, but also
those UK stores as well as other stuff. So it's no wonder they don't make
a profit. I remember a financial report half a year ago where they reported
losses for the first half of the year.
Antonino Vitale
AVV>I was just flipping through TV channels and heard the name Escom
AVV>mentioned on a CNN International financial show. It mentioned that the
AVV>value of its stock had dropped 25% after the company announced that it
AVV>failed to make a profit in 1995. This can't be a positive development re
AVV>Amiga Tech.
AVV>
The question is why did ESCOM fail to make a profit in 1995. Was it
because of lower sales, or was it because ESCOM took on additional debt
from the purchase of Commodore? Or was it a change in accounting practices?
A loss in revenue does not look good, but neither does increasing your
debt to asset ratio from a purchase like Commodore. 1995 was an expensive
year for ESCOM. Let's see what happens in 1996.
---
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ / Nino Vitale / // +
+I never met a Vogon I didn't like. \\// Amiga - Realize the possibilities +
+ (vit...@tps.bpss.eds.com) \/ [Commodore's lost opportunity] +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Martin Leslie Baker
: In article <4ccdha$5...@orm.southern.co.nz>, kfer...@southern.co.nz (Kerry Ferrand) writes:
: > I was just flipping through TV channels and heard the name Escom
: > mentioned on a CNN International financial show. It mentioned that the
: > value of its stock had dropped 25% after the company announced that it
: > failed to make a profit in 1995. This can't be a positive development re
: > Amiga Tech.
:
: Don't forget that ESCOM still is a PC-shifting company with a very very narrow
: profit margin. In '95 they made large acquisitions, not only C=, but also
: those UK stores as well as other stuff. So it's no wonder they don't make
: a profit. I remember a financial report half a year ago where they reported
: losses for the first half of the year.
Yep, Escom have had a lot of expense in the last year. Escom bought a chain
of over 200 (I think 238) High Street (high street = prominent = expensive)
stores. I don't have a clue what this cost, but I would say more than the
aquisition of C=. After they bought C= they had to negotiate aquisiton of
stock inventory in Phillipines etc. Then they had to pay top whack,
dollar, franc, whatever, to get Amiga back in production. Not forgetting
investing capital for founding of ATg and the purchase of C= UK.
IMHO Escom have possibly made a huge mistake in their investment in retail
in UK. I have never seen more than 6 people in an Escom store, I do not
know anyone who has bought anything from Escom apart from cheap 3 1/2
floppies. Their Escom branded PCs are not significantly cheaper than those
on sale in Electrical retailers. I think peeople feel happier buying from
either Mail/order or from established Electrical retail outlets, paying
similar money for more common names - IBM, HP, Compaq etc. On top of this
their stores are very un-inviting. Escom leapt in with both feet into UK
retail because they know that the public is becoming more computer literate
and that PC/computer sales are set to grow.
Escoms advertising budget for UK must be rather large as well. There has
been a sustained national TV campaign along with 3 or 4 distributions of
small colour brochures to over half the nation's homes. The A1200 was
included in the last one! Additionally I think that their C= Go! range of
PCs are very expensive, and Escom are seriously mistaken if they think that
the C= name will sell PCs.
Added to all this, is the fact that Escom are not pushing Amiga in UK.
They do not have A1200s on display but generally have 3 or 4 Amiga boxes
(usually upside down), and there have been a lot of tales of sales
assistants refusing to demonstrate Amigas, telling potential customers they
don't really want an Amiga, and allegedly in one case the manager of an
Escom branch told a customer that they were not allowed to demonstrate
Amiga. Big mistake. The UK consumer, generally are still not convinced
about computers in the home, that scepticism is not reduced when they see
the price of computers. There is a _big_ void here that Amiga can easily
fill. Sceptics would be more willing to buy an Amiga to have their first
dabble with computers than pay three times as much for an all singing all
dancing multi-media pc, IMO.
+--------+-------------------------------------+------------------------+
| Martin | Amiga 1200 030 6MB 120MB HD CD-ROM | m...@rekab.demon.co.uk |
| Leslie | AT M1438S Supra V32bis | +44 (0)1724 873718 |
| Baker | Motorola Motivated... Amiga CD32 | Scunthorpe |
+--------+-------------------------------------+------------------------+
Wells Fargo Bank
: I was just flipping through TV channels and heard the name Escom
: mentioned on a CNN International financial show. It mentioned that the
: value of its stock had dropped 25% after the company announced that it
: failed to make a profit in 1995. This can't be a positive development re
: Amiga Tech.
: K
Well, I would think that this 'dip' in profits was partly due to putting out
over 30 million in puchasing and producing the Amiga line again. If this
trend hasn't balanced out by 2nd QTR of '96, then I will be concerned.
Otherwise, I am not very surprised to see it. While I don't know how much
Escom normally profits in a year... you try spending around 30 million
dollars for whatever it may be, and see if your financial sheet doesn't
show a fairly meager outlook for a while.
May well be that NOW is the time to get stock in the company while its 25%
below its normal cost, and wait for it to go up again.
Rob Bamford
(wfb...@netcom.com)
GR...@cunyvm.cuny.edu
dealing like 1995 was for them is like a little kid gaining weight
after a big meal. It will just make him grow faster.
I am very impressed with Escom' management, and I would have no
problem buying their stock (though I think I would call it a speculative
growth stock with good fundamentals), not a blue chip.
Jason Compton
: Well, I would think that this 'dip' in profits was partly due to putting out
: over 30 million in puchasing and producing the Amiga line again. If this
: trend hasn't balanced out by 2nd QTR of '96, then I will be concerned.
: Otherwise, I am not very surprised to see it. While I don't know how much
: Escom normally profits in a year... you try spending around 30 million
: dollars for whatever it may be, and see if your financial sheet doesn't
: show a fairly meager outlook for a while.
Amiga was a drop in the bucket compared to the Rumbelows (Escom UK) deal
and the RWE stock deal.
: May well be that NOW is the time to get stock in the company while its 25%
: below its normal cost, and wait for it to go up again.
It's not publicly traded, though.
--
Jason Compton jcom...@xnet.com
Editor-in-Chief, Amiga Report Magazine (708) 741-0689 FAX
The warming sun... ...the cooling rain.
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Manfred Wojciechowski
>I was just flipping through TV channels and heard the name Escom
>mentioned on a CNN International financial show. It mentioned that the
>value of its stock had dropped 25% after the company announced that it
>failed to make a profit in 1995. This can't be a positive development re
>Amiga Tech.
>
investment. For example they invested a lot in opening new ESCOM-shops all over
Europe. Second they bought the rights of COMMODORE an AMIGA. They founded a new
virtual-reality-division, called i-glasses. Finally they bought HAGENUK, which
is known for their great mobile telefones. These were huge investments, which
clearly showed ESCOM's vision.
ESCOM has a strategic alliance with RWE, that is one of germany's biggest
powersupplier and that is building up their telekommunikation-network. RWE,
HAGENUK and AMIGA, that is a strong base for multimedia. Just read ESCOM's
goals on WWW. It clearly states, that the purchase of AMIGA was a milestone
towards becoming a multimedia-company.
BTW shareholders of ESCOM is SIEMENS with 10%.
Greg Jung
In article <wfblanDK...@netcom.com>, wfb...@netcom.com (Wells Fargo Bank) writes:
|>Kerry Ferrand (kfer...@southern.co.nz) wrote:
|>: I was just flipping through TV channels and heard the name Escom
|>: mentioned on a CNN International financial show. It mentioned that the
|>: value of its stock had dropped 25% after the company announced that it
|>: failed to make a profit in 1995. This can't be a positive development re
|>: Amiga Tech.
|>
Its irrelevant re: AT and I presume everyone at ESCOM feels that way, also.
|>
|>: K
|>
|>
|>Well, I would think that this 'dip' in profits was partly due to putting out
|>over 30 million in puchasing and producing the Amiga line again.
They can write off investments into the balance sheet so they don't
contribute to the instantaneous profit. $30M is peanuts, anyway,
compared to their PC business. What did happen to the balance sheet?
possibly caught with inventory (hard drives) that devalued.
|>
|>May well be that NOW is the time to get stock in the company while its 25%
|>below its normal cost, and wait for it to go up again.
|>
If you were already accumulating stock, that would be right. As
a random pick, it is probably not a good idea to buy things that have
recently declined. Stocks can be expected to be up/down 50/100 % on
a yearly basis, anyway. Then the amiga, regardless of its success,
will not do much for the Co. as a whole, unless it really does become
the "set-top box" everybody seems to be whispering about.
Greg aka merril Lynch
Simon Ihmig
>I was just flipping through TV channels and heard the name Escom
>mentioned on a CNN International financial show. It mentioned that the
>value of its stock had dropped 25% after the company announced that it
>failed to make a profit in 1995. This can't be a positive development re
>Amiga Tech.
They reported losses of about 45 million DM at a turnover of
2.35 billion DM!
Last year they made a profit of 11.4 million DM at a turnover of
2.15 billion DM!
Their losses are reportedly caused by production delays and missing
components for producing the Amiga family.
This info was taken from a german newspaper.
My personal comment:
You should not overestimate this!
They had to make big investments for taking over C= and rapidly setting up
production of the Amiga. Moreover they heavily expanded their dealers network
outside Germany. (They even acquired another company called "Hagenuk")
And btw, I heared on CNN today (3.1.96) that stocks were raising again! :)
--
Simon Ihmig //
Ih...@tu-harburg.d400.de \X/ Amiga 4000/060, 18MB RAM, 1GB HD, SD64 4MB
Ruud Dingemans
KF> From: kfer...@southern.co.nz (Kerry Ferrand)
KF> I was just flipping through TV channels and heard the name Escom
KF> mentioned on a CNN International financial show. It mentioned that the
KF> value of its stock had dropped 25% after the company announced that it
KF> failed to make a profit in 1995. This can't be a positive development
Escom has made very large investments in 1995. (Rumbelows in the UK,
Amiga and Commodore...)
Regards, Ruud
rdi...@grafix.xs4all.nl
-- Via Xenolink 1.985B1, XenolinkUUCP 1.1
Ruud Dingemans
MW> for multimedia. Just read ESCOM's goals on WWW. It clearly states, that
MW> the purchase of AMIGA was a milestone towards becoming a
MW> multimedia-company.
MW> BTW shareholders of ESCOM is SIEMENS with 10%.
...Which is also the company that bought up the firm of
(recently-deceased) Konrad Zuse, who is generally credited for making
the first electrical programmable computer.
Respectable company for the Amiga, I would say ;)
D P Marshall
Antonino Vitale <vit...@dps.cos.eds.com> wrote:
>The question is why did ESCOM fail to make a profit in 1995. Was it
>because of lower sales, or was it because ESCOM took on additional debt
>from the purchase of Commodore? Or was it a change in accounting practices?
>A loss in revenue does not look good, but neither does increasing your
>debt to asset ratio from a purchase like Commodore. 1995 was an expensive
>year for ESCOM. Let's see what happens in 1996.
Their purchase of Commodore was small-fry compared to their purchase and
opening of 120 new shops in the UK. Escom, above all, realize that you
have to spend some money to make some money. I think they know what
they're doing. Amiga Tech, of course, just a comparatively tiny subsidiary
of Escom.
Dave
--
"What sauce would you like with your nuggets?"