http://apnews.excite.com/article/20020206/D7HGS1680.html


Buoyed by strong holiday sales, consumer electronics maker SONICblue Inc. on Wednesday reported a narrower fourth-quarter loss than expected.

SONICblue, maker of Rio audio players, Go-Video DVD/VCR players and ReplayTV digital video recorders, said its net loss for the quarter ending Dec. 31 was $44.1 million, or 47 cents a share. In the year ago period, the company reported a loss of $67.5 million, or 72 cents a share.

The Santa Clara-based company said its pro forma operating loss was $6.8 million, or 7 cents a share, smaller than the estimated loss of 9 cents a share by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call.

Revenue for the quarter was $79.6 million, lower than the $99.2 million in the year-ago period, but substantially higher than the $58 million Wall Street analysts were expecting.

"Our strong fourth-quarter performance is further validation of the successful actions we have taken in 2001 to become a profitable, broad-based, digital entertainment device company," said John Todd, the company's chief operating officer.

etc etc etc

Gotta love it when a company loses $44 million and claims "a strong fourth quarter performance!" The new economy is a beautiful thing!

Who cares what analysts thought they'd lose? Losing money is losing money. I'm a big fan of companies that MAKE money instead. These crazy "old economy" ideas...

And as we all know, the way SonicBlue goofs up at every possible opportunity in the marketing and order fulfillment arenas, it's no wonder they can sell products for hundreds and thousands of dollars and still find ways to lose money.

If anyone reading this holds SBLU stock (besides SonicBlue employees) please check yourself into the nearest mental health facility as soon as possible. Or wait for the men in white coats to come...

A stock is worth only what people are willing to pay for it, regardless of its ticker symbol or the performance of the company.

Understanding human psychology and market tech analysis is a lot more involved than simply looking at how well a company can or cannot make money.

There are plenty of chances to make money with the stock of companies who don't look good on paper. Some things are just hard to explain. Like the price NVDA trades at.

Bruno

They could probably increase next quarter's profits with a few tuners...

Sonicblue is in a very strong position technology-wise, with all the companies it has bought, such as empeg and replay tv. The software written for the empeg especially is top-notch. Assuming it is easily ported to other audio devices, Sonicblue could capture a lot of market share.

Nobody I knew had ever even heard of the empeg. One guy has an ipod he hooks up in his car and a couple other people had talked about copying him. A few people had even heard of the neo jukebox, but knew nothing about it.

Replay TV is just as bad as far as name-recognition. Everybody in my fraternity house has heard of Tivo. Most people don't understand why a PVR would be useful, but they at least have a general idea of what the Tivo is.

Why then is Sonicblue not making more of an effort to get their name out there? I'm no marketing expert, but it seems to me, that if people don't even know your product exists, they aren't going to buy it.

Secondly, why isn't Sonicblue making more of an effort so far as getting their products into stores, either online or retail? For a lot of their products, the only way to find them, much less order them, is direct. It usually isn't even possible to get through to Sonicblue on the phone.

I'll be rooting for Sonicblue and especially the empeg guys. They have a lot of good products and some of the best technology out there.

-Biscuits

They could probably increase next quarter's profits with a few tuners...

Actually, no. We made almost no money on them.

Rob

Secondly, why isn't Sonicblue making more of an effort so far as getting their products into stores

Almost all of them are in stores - new products tend to be online only for a few months, and then go into retail. We also sell a huge volume of GoVideo products through QVC.

Rob

I'm a big fan of companies that MAKE money instead

John Todd:

"This is the third consecutive quarter of sequential revenue growth improvement, sequential gross margin improvement, sequential reduction in operating expenses and reduced operating cash burn.''

"We are comfortable with the current consensus revenue guidance of $55 million for the first quarter and the increased consensus of $280 million for 2002,'' continued Todd. "We also are comfortable with the current earnings per share consensus, which estimates a pro forma operating loss of $0.06 for the first quarter and a pro forma operating loss of $0.05 for the full year, and we are comfortable with consensus estimates of returning to profitability in the third quarter.''

In reply to:

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Almost all of them are in stores - new products tend to be online only for a few months, and then go into retail. We also sell a huge volume of GoVideo products through QVC.

Rob

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I think they were referencing the Empeg with that

Otherwise I have no problems seeing the Rio items.

Who knows, maybe you'll see the new Mk.III in every GM or Ford auto dealership soon eough!

Work with the OnStar folks on having the mk3 talk to OnStar and that'd be sweet! I see the OnStar team from time to time I could just happen to show off my RioCar to them.

The reason I am confident in SonicBlue: they are smart enough to keep the empeg staff. I can't wait until they start to give them mroe and mroe projects. _

"Who knows, maybe you'll see the new Mk.III in every GM or Ford auto dealership soon eough!

Work with the OnStar folks on having the mk3 talk to OnStar and that'd be sweet! I see the OnStar team from time to time I could just happen to show off my RioCar to them. "

Don't toy with my emotions :P

Yeah but MARS NEEDS TUNERS! (or at least those of us without them and no real hope of ever having one 80(

I really hope whatever oem deals they have are with aftermarket stereo companies not car manufactures.

I really hope whatever oem deals they have are with aftermarket stereo companies not car manufactures.



EXACTLY.

Think of it in a Kia... (no offense to Kia owners) or a Yugo (do they even MAKE those anymore?)....

Would you buy said car just to get the mp3 player?

But I still think that regardless of what the empeg guys put out in the near (3 year) timeframe, the MK2 is going to be better. It's just got too many 'tweaks' that don't fit well with the common public or their wallet. It would be great to find an improved MK2, but thats not likely soon.

Empeg themselves admitted that the Mk.3 wasn't going to be in the same class as the 2. The Mk.3 was designed around a different price point.