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#1
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Hope Springs Eternal (was: , , Quantegy Tape Rumors)
http://www.atrservice.com/news/news_item.php?newsid=40 A well balanced view from one of the most knowledgable people in the world of analog recording technology (and yes, he has a vested interest in keeping tape to fee the recorders he reconditions). -- I'm really Mike Rivers ) However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over, lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo |
#2
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Mike Rivers wrote:
A well balanced view from one of the most knowledgable people in the world of analog recording technology Does it not seem odd to anyone that a company who " Last year...... reported total sales of about 30M." isn't capable of staying in business? Honestly does anyone know how bad management was? I have friends here running Media and Production business's that hit 5 million dollars in sales and are profitable. -- Nathan "Imagine if there were no Hypothetical Situations" |
#3
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Nathan West wrote:
Mike Rivers wrote: A well balanced view from one of the most knowledgable people in the world of analog recording technology Does it not seem odd to anyone that a company who " Last year...... reported total sales of about 30M." isn't capable of staying in business? Honestly does anyone know how bad management was? I have friends here running Media and Production business's that hit 5 million dollars in sales and are profitable. Manufacturing isn't quite the same as media & production. And look how much biz Enron was doing. g -- ha ha ha |
#4
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"hank alrich" wrote in message Manufacturing isn't quite the same as media & production. And look how much biz Enron was doing. g Point taken. g Maybe someone would look at the factory and take stock of the 30M figure. There is no way it cost that company 20 million a year to make tape. But even if it did, 10M is nice profit. And if the owners were rolling back 9M into the business to improve quality and replace/maintain machinery they could walk with a nice investment and pay bonuses to the sales and factory staff. PollyNathan signing off. |
#6
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"Mike Rivers" wrote in message What's their cost for raw materials, salaries, buildings and maintenance, and production machinery? Off the top of my head: 75% of revenue. If it cost more then there is a cost management problem at the heart of the business; that perhaps Quantegy management is lacking, or have been profiteering and letting the business die. You can't make tape in your garage. The media companies I deal with aren't ran out of garages, but in real brick and mortar buildings in the Research Triangle Park. They also have the real associated cost of buying and maintaining hardware, production, staging equipment, new technology, Labor (and associated cost)... etc... Or maybe I misunderstood your comment about garages...are you referring to Bill Gates? Frankly, it seems odd to me that airlines can't stay in business without a lot of help, Most *don't* stay in business. Except that Southwest though has made a profit every year of business, including post 9/11. And yes you can argue that they had a lot of advantages in hubs, shorter routes etc... but then I would argue back that they had excellent insight into how a Airline could successfully be ran in the US. The problem I see with United, AA, Delta and the others is they have had unrealistic almost Dot.Com approaches to running airlines the last 25 years. They are also stocked to the gils with old school management that couldn't predict the outcome of yesterday's baseball game and are void of any sort of foresight about the business. At the same time they have been part and parcel of the self entitlement generation of business managers, awarding themselves millions of dollars in bonuses when they are headed to, or currently are in bankruptcy. How they stay out of jail is beyond me. BTW I also think that GM is heading to the same neighborhood. but then the government or courts aren't about to bail out Quantegy. They have to find their own money. Or maybe someone will realize what is going on there and not chase good money after bad. Yes I'm slightly negative about it, but with good reason. Over the last 15 years my dealings with any business has produced the same two realizations: Profitable companies have Great Leadership and Great Leadership is the rarest of commodity at most business's. Nathan |
#7
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Nathan West wrote:
"Mike Rivers" wrote in message What's their cost for raw materials, salaries, buildings and maintenance, and production machinery? Off the top of my head: 75% of revenue. If it cost more then there is a cost management problem at the heart of the business; that perhaps Quantegy management is lacking, or have been profiteering and letting the business die. I have not seen the numbers. But I do remember that a few years ago, the Quantegy holding company took the Ampex media division over from Ampex as repayment for some debts. They did this because the media group was the ONLY PROFITABLE division of Ampex at the time. From this I can gather: 1. Quantegy was reasonably profitable at least fairly recently 2. Ampex was badly mismanaged and some of that may have come over to Quantegy with the takeover. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
#8
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Nathan West wrote:
Mike Rivers wrote: A well balanced view from one of the most knowledgable people in the world of analog recording technology Does it not seem odd to anyone that a company who " Last year...... reported total sales of about 30M." isn't capable of staying in business? No. $30M companies went out of style about ten years ago... Honestly does anyone know how bad management was? I have friends here running Media and Production business's that hit 5 million dollars in sales and are profitable. Those are not capital-goods intensive companies. With all due respect to your buddies they are much closer to a "time and materials" cashflow model. It's a service business. It doesn't "make" anything tangible. -- Nathan "Imagine if there were no Hypothetical Situations" -- Les Cargill |
#9
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Nathan West wrote:
"Mike Rivers" wrote in message What's their cost for raw materials, salaries, buildings and maintenance, and production machinery? Off the top of my head: 75% of revenue. If it cost more then there is a cost management problem at the heart of the business; that perhaps Quantegy management is lacking, or have been profiteering and letting the business die. You can't make tape in your garage. The media companies I deal with aren't ran out of garages, but in real brick and mortar buildings in the Research Triangle Park. They also have the real associated cost of buying and maintaining hardware, production, staging equipment, new technology, Labor (and associated cost)... etc... But they still bid jobs based on estimated time and materials. They are not making "commodity" goods for sale in the open market. Or maybe I misunderstood your comment about garages...are you referring to Bill Gates? Frankly, it seems odd to me that airlines can't stay in business without a lot of help, Most *don't* stay in business. Except that Southwest though has made a profit every year of business, including post 9/11. And yes you can argue that they had a lot of advantages in hubs, shorter routes etc... but then I would argue back that they had excellent insight into how a Airline could successfully be ran in the US. Everybody I know who has worked at an airline disagrees with this statement. Southwest cannot be the primary business model; they completely depend on being a second-tier provider. I do not know this to be true, but these folks are either deluded or know more than I do. The problem I see with United, AA, Delta and the others is they have had unrealistic almost Dot.Com approaches to running airlines the last 25 years. They are also stocked to the gils with old school management that couldn't predict the outcome of yesterday's baseball game and are void of any sort of foresight about the business. At the same time they have been part and parcel of the self entitlement generation of business managers, awarding themselves millions of dollars in bonuses when they are headed to, or currently are in bankruptcy. How they stay out of jail is beyond me. BTW I also think that GM is heading to the same neighborhood. The unrealistic expectations are from Joe Schmoe and his 401k plan. He has no interest in the running of the business, just in the ROI. but then the government or courts aren't about to bail out Quantegy. They have to find their own money. Or maybe someone will realize what is going on there and not chase good money after bad. Someone will, but you'll never see a significant fraction of investors do much more than what you now see. Yes I'm slightly negative about it, but with good reason. Over the last 15 years my dealings with any business has produced the same two realizations: Profitable companies have Great Leadership and Great Leadership is the rarest of commodity at most business's. Nathan Which stands in stark contrast to the "managers are greedy *******s who are overpaid" theme of many of these threads. Rare commodities command rare price. -- Les Cargill |
#11
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"Les Cargill" wrote in message But they still bid jobs based on estimated time and materials. They are not making "commodity" goods for sale in the open market. You have a product, it has a market value. There isn't a difference to me. If they made 2" tape, and they couldn't return profit on it, then they either raise the price to enable the revenue, or they fail becuase they think that breaking even is a good idea. And if you are manufacturing Video Tape, and you can't see the forest for the tree's, then you suffer the consequences and are also a poor manager. Everybody I know who has worked at an airline disagrees with this statement. Southwest cannot be the primary business model; they completely depend on being a second-tier provider. None the less with the way airlines are going bankrupt right and left it appears that the people managing and working in them are clueless. The unrealistic expectations are from Joe Schmoe and his 401k plan. He has no interest in the running of the business, just in the ROI. No the BOD and the CEO & CFO leadership skills are suspect when a company can't meet the needs of Shareholders and Business demands. Which stands in stark contrast to the "managers are greedy *******s who are overpaid" theme of many of these threads. Rare commodities command rare price. Well I've never bought into the greedy CEO's have wrecked my life senario. There are a percentage who rip off business's along guys that get paid in the range of Michael Isner who are obsencely greedy ripoffs in themselves. But it is contrasted with the great leaders like CostCo CEO Jim Senegal, who only take 1/2 a million salary. And CostCo is a great place to work and shop. Nathan |
#12
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"Mike Rivers" wrote in message
news:znr1105658014k@trad... What's their cost for raw materials, salaries, buildings and maintenance, and production machinery? You can't make tape in your garage. Capital! Whether $x is a good profit or not depends a lot on how much capital you have (and, to some extent, on how it's structured, e.g. how much debt, how much equity). Frankly, it seems odd to me that airlines can't stay in business without a lot of help, but then the government or courts aren't about to bail out Quantegy. They have to find their own money. Airlines are enormously capital-intensive. Most businesses that are that heavily capitalized will go broke on the bad side of the business cycle. Reorganization (what's now available to businesses generally in Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code) was invented for railroads, which periodically went bust even in their heyday. Also -- in the case of the old-line carriers -- unionized. That works okay if your competitors are all also unionized (with similar contracts and the same unions), but sinks you if they're not. |
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