SF 2002 Report - Things are going on!

HPV wrote on 12/17/2002, 10:02 PM
Here is the URL for the Sonic Foundry Reports Fourth Quarter and Year-end Results for Fiscal 2002

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/news/ShowRelease.asp?ReleaseID=498&CatID=

You can listen to the conference call via vcall.com - see bottom of above page.

Things I noticed:
*Next Product release is Q2, so doesn't look like Vegas 4 will be here in Q1. This is at 22:57 in the conference call.
*They are trying to sell off some assets in the next 60 days. Sounds like some major deals to erase all debt, plus money to go forward. There is a note that comes due in March 2003. Rimas Buinevicius, chairman and CEO of Sonic Foundry asked that we please not speculate on what is being sold or who may be buying it. Lets do our part here and elsewhere and NOT SPECULATE.
*Vegas update had mention of associated DVD technology. Hmmm

I wish all at SF a Happy Holiday season and a bright and money making future. Go get guys and gals. Your code is tops in the PC market.

Did you know that Vegas is advertised in COLOR on the inside of the cover in the VideoMaker Magazine, Dec. '02 issue. It's a DVLINE.COM add for Vegas,Acid and Sound Forge. Not the best magazine, but good to see SF getting some exposure. Gotta love 80,000 eyes seeing it.

Cheers,
Craig Holtorf
HighPeaksVideo@aol.com

Comments

watson wrote on 12/17/2002, 11:55 PM
I have been doing my tiny part in promoting Sonic foundry software to anyone who will listen.
Ever since my first version of sound forge, then Vegas I have been completely sold on the fine software from this company.
I thought sound forge was great. Now with Vegas I bubble with joy when speaking about their products.

I hope we can all do a little grass roots sales and help this great company over the bump in the road.
I love recommending products that work better than advertised!
Thank you Sonic Foundry!

Best regards,
W
David_Kuznicki wrote on 12/18/2002, 6:54 AM
*Next Product release is Q2, so doesn't look like Vegas 4 will be here in Q1.

Kudos to SoFo!
Although I desperately want Vegas 4 ASAP, I'm thrilled that they're taking their time on this one. Although it's going to take longer than we anticipated... God bless them! I have no doubt that it will be worth the wait.

David.
JJKizak wrote on 12/18/2002, 8:14 AM
I bought their stock. That says something right there.

James J. Kizak
stusy wrote on 12/18/2002, 8:47 AM
It may behoove one to at least have SF's stock listed along with others in your MSN8 "list", whether you have any of it or not is non sequiter (sp)...
David_Kuznicki wrote on 12/18/2002, 9:12 AM
I suppose the only question now is-- what exactly are they selling off? They made such a big deal out of it during the phone conference (I have too much free time, I guess, as I listened to the whole thing), so it's gotta be something big...

David.
rextilleon wrote on 12/18/2002, 9:25 AM
Thats good news--I think that there has been a growing ground swell for Vegas. What can they sell---emmmmmmmmm Maybe there WEbPresentation products---Hopefully they will keep the triumverite of Vegas, Forge and Acid----!
JJKizak wrote on 12/18/2002, 11:36 AM
I have found when it comes down to money, don't hold your breath.

James J. Kizak
JonnyMac wrote on 12/18/2002, 12:00 PM
I saw a report on the net that their web presentation products are expected to make money -- probably won't sell them off. An outsider is speculating that the company will sell off the audio and video products ... let's hope he's wrong. What I think we can rightfully expect -- if SoFo does keep the audio and video products -- is that prices will go up.

Perhaps, too, the slightly later release of VV4 will mean that SoFo is addressing areas where pro filmmakers choose FCP over VV -- that would be good for us all.
rextilleon wrote on 12/18/2002, 12:14 PM
Or perhaps they are delaying development until they sell it--thus the wait until the second quarter----
rextilleon wrote on 12/18/2002, 12:15 PM
Or perhaps they are delaying beta testing to save money or until they sell it--thus the wait until the second quarter----
David_Kuznicki wrote on 12/18/2002, 12:18 PM
Or maybe, come to think of it, VV4 isn't really that far delayed. They could be releasing it early Q2, say, April... which would be AWFULLY close to the March date that we've all been speculating about.

David.
Summersond wrote on 12/18/2002, 12:39 PM
Well, SoFo just released the 5.1 plugin for Acid Pro just now, as I got an email.

dave
rextilleon wrote on 12/18/2002, 2:00 PM
Another thought---I posted this in Cow:

I think the theory is that the market is inundated with NLE's and sound software--mature---However, the streaming media portion is young and they have a leg up--beyond that, the market study characters say that it will boom over the next couple of years---Thats the only rationalization I can see---I think for Sonic to compete in the NLE/Sound end of the business would require capital investment and a big marketing push---it's obvious they dont have money----

Now who would buy Vegas (all conjecture of course--not even sure if Vegas will be sold) Perhaps Adobe--well they have good market share with Premiere and thus it doesn't make sense---Pinnacle--they just released Edition. The worst case scenario in my mind is that someone buys Vegas, takes the best of it and somehow combines it with their existing product---thus Vegas dies and a hybrid emerges--

I say we all light a candle, face Mecca, read the Torah, pray to the Gods etc and hope that Sonic maintains control of Vegas, Sound Forge, and Acid.

BrianStanding wrote on 12/18/2002, 2:19 PM
Worst-case scenario is a competitor buys up Vegas and kills it. (Like Apple did to DVD Virtuoso).

How about Canopus, discreet or Main Concept as potential buyers?
rextilleon wrote on 12/18/2002, 2:36 PM
You are right---I didn't think of that--but in my mind Vegas doesn't have enough market share to buy and kill---Now Canopus would be interesting---their NLE sucks, people have been chopping at the bit for them to change it----if they could figure out a way to tweak Vegas so that it ran with their line of capture cards then heck, you could have an awesome combo--
BillyBoy wrote on 12/18/2002, 2:36 PM
What concerns me if the product line is spun off or sold is HOW or CAN you reinstall the current version of Vegas you have if you need to due to system failure or just wanting to upgrade to a new box. Don't forget that damn stupid MPEG registration scheme. If you reinstall you need to "register" again. I hate to say I told you so, but over a year a go I voiced concern over this potential problem in the event SoFo went belly up or just sold off assets. Also it seems SoFo has too many fingers in different pies. Result: no focus. SoFo isn't a Microsoft, Sun, IBM or even an Abode. Why such a small company is trying to go in so many directions at once I don't understand. The bottom line is they don't have the cash to do it and thus all the product lines suffer from a lack of marketing.
bjtap wrote on 12/18/2002, 2:50 PM
"Lets do our part here and elsewhere and NOT SPECULATE."
rextilleon wrote on 12/18/2002, 2:59 PM
Do our part? I am not sure what that means---Its obvious if you listen to the Vcall carefully that they will be dumping Vegas, et al and concentrating on the other part of the business----Everyone in this room loves the product and has done everything in their power to promote it---We are however, only a small group of consumers----I am not mad at Sonic---I understand that they would prefer survival to Chapter 11-

If the odds were posted in the real Vegas---my guess they would be at about 10-1 that Vegas Video will be owned by Sonic at the end of the 60 day period. I could be wrong---I hope I am wrong---but it seems rather obvious to me---

Again, listen to the Vcall----read beneath the lines---He talks strictly about their security markets, webstreaming etc---as the future.
winrockpost wrote on 12/18/2002, 4:07 PM
dos was worth about 10k until gates got a hold of it. doomsday its not guys
JJKizak wrote on 12/18/2002, 4:10 PM
Bill paid $50,000.00 gor DOS.

James J. Kizak
winrockpost wrote on 12/18/2002, 4:12 PM
exuse me
David_Kuznicki wrote on 12/18/2002, 4:13 PM
--Again, listen to the Vcall----read beneath the lines---He talks strictly about their security markets, webstreaming etc---as the future.

True, but that's not the only thing that he mentioned. He also talked about a continued movement away from tradional retatil outlets (ie: Best Buy), in favor of direct SoFo sales. This means one thing to me-- that SoFo will continue to produce consumer software. The stuff that WE want. Otherwise, they wouldn't have touted the distrubution channel message so much.

My bets? We haven't seen the last of Vegas. And why? Because Vegas IS a great product, but it doesn't have the level of interest that SoFo would need to sell it. That simply means that SoFo wouldn't be able to sell it at a price point that would cover all their debts.

And they WON'T kill Acid, the golden goose. The loop sales are too lucritive.

My HOPE is that SoFo developed something new... something we haven't seen yet. Something that we won't miss if it was picked up by someone else before initial distribution by SoFo.

I hope...

David.
JJKizak wrote on 12/18/2002, 4:47 PM
Riscel:
The only reason I know bill paid $50,000.00 for DOS is because I
have the 3-VHS tape set called "?????????? nerds". It is extremely
informative especially how all of those billionaires smoked dope
together before they got rich.

James J. Kizak
ibliss wrote on 12/18/2002, 5:50 PM