Comments on: Will Alan Atkinson Have The WysDM To Steer Xiotech Right?

By: sfoskett

sfoskett — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:46:53 +0000

Well thanks for clearing that up then!

I assume you have read Chris Mellor's piece in The Register:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/02/xiotech...

By: peglarr

peglarr — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:14:14 +0000

Hi Stephen, I certainly did not mean that you personally wish us to fail…that's why I constructed my sentence above the way I did, as 'many', meaning many others in the industry. We are not small; in fact, we are the world's largest privately held storage company. We have a top 10 market share in SAN storage. We have not announced debt; we announced a line of credit which we can tap into, if necessary, which is a prudent thing to do, since we are private and do not dine at the public trough. We have plenty of exciting announcements and dozens of customer wins/case studies out there; have a look.

By: sfoskett

sfoskett — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:56:00 +0000

Rob, I can imagine other reasons that folks question Xiotech's financial health, and can assure you that I do not “wish [Xiotech] to fail” as you seem to suggest. It is a small company; it has been through acquisition, spin-out, and product line assumption; it has announced both financing and (importantly) debt; it has seen fit to announce low-thousands sales of its premier product line.

The best thing (in my opinion) for Xiotech to do is to prove the doubters wrong with exciting announcements, customer wins, and similar evidence of execution. I can not imagine that the company would release more sales or financial information than has been already shown (15,000 ISE sales in 12 months).

By: sfoskett

sfoskett — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:46:53 +0000

Well thanks for clearing that up then!

I assume you have read Chris Mellor's piece in The Register:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/02/xiotech...

By: peglarr

peglarr — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:14:14 +0000

By: sfoskett

sfoskett — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:56:00 +0000

By: peglarr

peglarr — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:18:11 +0000

Stephen – you have it mostly right. Life does indeed remain in the storage industry, and lots of it, actually. Alan is exactly the right man at the right time, as well. But some of your other comments are off the mark. Xiotech is quite financially healthy, thank you, with a killer balance sheet, are able and continuing to plow significant dollars back into R&D, unlike a lot of our brethren in the industry. Plus, our relationship with Seagate is terrific; the mere fact that Steve Luczo is on our Board of Directors is full testament to that fact. Hurdle to product development? Quite the contrary – our group in Colorado Springs is, as many know, deep in Seagate experience and has stronger ties than any single group of developers around. It's puzzling why folks keep repeating the same myths that were perpetuated years ago as FUD. The only reason I can see for this is that many wish us to fail, and we haven't – still here, still innovative, still successful. But thanks for your post – your last sentence is right on and we intend to show the world that indeed, life remains in the storage industry.

By: W. Curtis Preston

W. Curtis Preston — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:34:13 +0000

Go, Alan! Good luck with your new job.