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Transmeta Files For IPO
Richard Finney writes "Reuters News Sevice is reporting that Transmeta is filing for an IPO." They are looking to raise $200 million - the rest of the details are sketchy.Update: 08/17 09:59 PM by H :Check out the FreeEdgar filing.
Transmeta has the right tech (high powered yet *low* powered chips in the handheld market). Transmeta has the right patents (code morphing, long run) but what remains to be seen is weather they can do that last very important thing. Service the hell out of their customers.
Can the fab line scale? Will the patents be challenged? How will they respond to Intel dumping dragonballs into the market?
These are all questions that remain to be answered. For me, I have to say, if they're smart enough to hire Linus, they're smart enough for me.
1. If they do send "the letter", tear it up and throw it away.
2. Watch all the yuck-a-puck daytraders make the stock "pop".
3. Wait for the stock to settle down and pass the "lock-out" period.
4. After the lock-out you will likely have at least one or two opportunities to buy the stock for close to, or perhaps even less than the IPO price. At that point, decide for yourself whether or not the company has a future worth investing in. Be sure to base this decision on your knowledge of the market and the competition. In this case, that means knowing a lot about Intel, Motorola, Xilinx, and other chip manufacturers.
Another good thing about this approach is that you don't have to buy some minimum alottment or conform to any rules about when you take a profit. If you only want 50 shares, then that's all you have to buy. If the stock jumps on some analyst's recommendation, you can cash out without having to worry about being barred from future IPOs.
The real beauty of this stategy is that while all the other fools are riding over the IPO hill and crying their eyes out on Yahoo message boards, you can put your money someplace else where it will really work for you.
Of course, if you are a Type-A "I lost 20k yesterday and it doesn't bother me" cocaine snorting day-trader, you can ignore my advice. Don't blame me if this advice doesn't work for you, and don't blame me if you drop dead from a heart attack at 40 either.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Well, I'm not just saying that because of what happened with Red Hat. As some of you may know, I and some others pounded on ETrade when they didn't release the shares for the coders promptly, even getting the SEC into the act. And even though my initial $51K that was in E*Trade never got put in (I did get 100 shares, though), I'm not really complaining, even if that was a lot to have sit in cash for weeks.
When we look back at all the Linux stocks, we'll see very few did well - Red Hat (marketing is why, brand is big), VA Research (now VA Linux Systems, mostly the quality rep), and not much more.
Don't be distracted by the huge first day pops - that's the institutionals letting out the air and the hype factor. If you can get IPO shares - great! If you can't - wait at least 90 days to buy them - best times are 90-100 day and 180-210 day when the option lockups expire.
And if they send you an email saying you should get shares, don't take no for an answer. Send in the cash, take your allotment, and ride it for all it's worth. If you get a few hundred shares, consider dropping 25 to 100 of them during the first week to cover your cost, and then keep the rest until you retire. Don't worry about warnings about not selling - that's only if you do IPOs all the time. I've been restricted from IPOs a few times, when I dropped a hot IPO for a good 300 to 600 percent return and never regretted it.
Note: I own MSDW stock (a major chunk of my portfolio, and a great stock) and I'm going for as many TMTA shares as I can get in my large MSDW account. Remember, if you are friends and family, you don't have to jump through the same hoops as everyone else. And if people mess with you, the SEC is your friend.
Will in Seattle
How will they respond to Intel dumping dragonballs into the market?
Probably with slack-jawed incredulity, same as I would, since the MC68328 'DragonBall' is not an Intel product...
Delaware doesn't charge corporations taxes and has a lot of laws that are titled in corporation's favor in regards to litigation.
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Chaosnetwork
OliverWillis.Com
An Operative with an Agenda
Way back in the 19th Century, New York had very liberal incorporation laws. When New York passed a stricter set of laws, a group of New York lawyers went to Delaware and convince the legislature to pass their own very liberal incorporation laws.
A flood of incorporations then came to Delaware, making it nationally dominant, and thus created a network effect. Most incorporations happened in Delaware, so most legal experts in incorporation were specialized in Delaware incorporation law, so most incorporations were done in Delaware, so...
Since then, Delaware has managed to keep itself a good location for incorporation with low taxes, liberal laws, and expert judges to supplement the network effect.
Steven E. Ehrbar