Re: Uh yeah...
AC - your omments here around customer's procurement methods are sound, as customers are generally pretty good at ensuring they get good prices initially and subsequently. But that's where your logic stops. Gross Product Margins are indeed good at Pure - as are most vendor's gross product margins. But you've neglected to address the negative operating margin (Rolex anyone). And whilst the net losses for the quarter WERE lower, they are still significant. Burning cash at a pretty good rate.
They really need step up the momentum AND maintain it if they want outrun the losses they're still incurring. As like most vendors, there's a point when the growth tapers off. Add into the mix competition from HP, Nimble and EMC ..... and its hard to see how these guys are going to turn (not return) this business into a profit making machine ; currently, the share price is driven by the hype and looks like a lousy investment to me.
Time to stop giving away Rolexs boys. Wonder what their customers think of that ?
And regarding your comments about EMC "selling itself" and cashing in the chips, you're kidding yourself if you think these start-ups are going to out-run EMC. Not only is EMC the biggest in the game, they've got the cash, the portfolio and the sales reach. Now Dell is taking them private, they're not going to be smashed by Wall Street as they navigate their way through all this change. And they are certainly not divesting the business. How do you figure that ? The company will remain intact and in fact becomes the largest IT company in the world. How is that divesting itself ? The semantics of being sold, bought, merged don't really matter. Both companies agreed to it and the customers appear to be pumped - so whats the issue ?
And that's what happens when you buy a public company btw - you purchase the shares of the company you're buying.