Amstrad Share Discussion Threads

[groenstraat19] 16/11/2006 13:15

AMT's SPECIAL DIVI should be paid out soon i think?

[oxooxo] 10/11/2006 09:41

Check out the share price chart; patch the drop following the announcement of the special dividend; listen to the chairman, well known for his reticence, preaching caution; imagine the impact of HDTV; the only way is up!

[impartial] 06/11/2006 12:46

No problem FC - what's up with your view on EVO?

[frontiercapital] 06/11/2006 10:30

Thanks Impartial..btw..I would always do the total opposite of what EVO say!

[impartial] 06/11/2006 09:33

Broker down / up grades - not that I place great store by them but wanted to et a feel for message board opinion

[impartial] 06/11/2006 09:20

Altium Securities 29-09-06 HOLD
Evolution Securities Ltd 05-10-06 REDUCE

FYI FC

[frontiercapital] 04/11/2006 18:50

Which brokers are those then Impartial?

[impartial] 04/11/2006 15:46

Please tell us NetC

What do you make of the broker downgrades from Buy to Hold & Weak Sell made since the End of Year update.

[netcurtains] 02/11/2006 18:50

why is it so cheap

[frontiercapital] 01/11/2006 22:25

Yes..maybe!

[frontiercapital] 24/10/2006 21:30

Next leg up?

[washbrook] 23/10/2006 15:51

Looks like more downside TUESDAY.

[explorer88] 21/10/2006 11:48

spob - thanks for your advice. Good luck with the elephants!

[spob] 21/10/2006 10:25

under 10m - sorry explorer88 i tend to favour the elephants in the main.

And the old saying elephants don't gallop is not true.

You might consider subscribing to a website run by Michael Walters.( well worth the small annual fee if you're into small companies ) He tends to favour the minows. And his recomendations produced some real gems for me in the past.

Also if you're going to persue the ten bagger route you should be looking at a portfolio of 10 - 15 stocks to compensate for the additional risk.



Michael Walters used to write a share column for the Daily Mail which was very popular. Then he decided to set up his own website. He has written books about investing in small companies.

[explorer88] 21/10/2006 08:05

hi spob

i'm looking to invest in three small market cap. stocks (under £10m) which have the potential to increase their market cap. tenfold in three years. I've identified one company, and am looking for two more - do you have any suggestions?

[impartial] 20/10/2006 14:34

Looks like there is a good buying oportunity at 1.60ish!

[spob] 20/10/2006 14:28

any ideas for the blip down to 156 ?

[washbrook] 20/10/2006 14:11

Sugar has an excellent point re advertisiements.

We have a set up box I skip the adverts, like many people I assume.

[darrin1471] 20/10/2006 12:13

The Sky+ 3 due next year will have a broadband connection allowing more pay per view content and is in effect an early form of IPTV. I have Telewest cable and since they added Teleport and Teleport replay, I have hardly watched a live program or any adverts. I do not have a PVR, but if I did then I don't think I would ever see an advert.
Without advertising to subsidise the programmes, TV will have to find income from elsewhere. The consumer will have to pay a channel subscription, pay for individual programmes watched or be bombarded by product placements.

[spob] 20/10/2006 10:02

Sir Alan Sugar says advertising has had it




Sir Alan Sugar, the chairman of consumer electronics company Amstrad, one of the suppliers of the Sky+ personal video recorder, believes that television advertising has had its day.



I'm a great believer in sticking to what you know: I know about business and the electronics industry. I appear on television, my company makes equipment which enables people to watch television, and of course I watch it myself. But I don't claim to be a broadcasting guru.

But as an outsider with a little bit of inside knowledge, I can make some observations about the kind of changes I see in the industry, particularly in the way technology is beginning to impact on the way television is organised and funded.

What is interesting is how satellite and cable have hardly managed to weaken the grip of the Big Five terrestrial broadcasters: BBC One and Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Five. This is in spite of the fact that – in theory at least – there is far more choice out there for the viewer.

Over the last couple of decades the major change in television has been the creation of extra channels through satellite and cable. With the advent of digital TV, we should see an ever-expanding range of choice, as more and more new channels come on air. It gets easier every day to set up as a broadcaster.

Given all that, increased competition should mean it becomes tougher for the individual broadcaster. But the Big Five don't seem to be seriously challenged. They're not even breathing heavily yet.

None of the ten or so 'secondary' channels, as I consider them, is especially popular or could survive in its own right. So I believe in the short term – by which I mean the next ten years – the Big Five have little to fear from the new kids on the block. Their major concern will be fighting amongst themselves.

But I don't want to give the impression that the Big Five can sit back smugly and assume that everything will carry on for them just as it has for the last 20 years.

If I headed any of the commercial channels, what would worry me right now is the kind of device my own company makes, which is beginning to revolutionise the way we watch television in this country: the PVR, Personal Video Recorder, essentially a set-top box incorporating a hard disk drive.

The people who are buying these so far are what I call the techno-clique, and right now you might not know why you would want one: but as soon as the cost begins to drop, you'll find out. Within ten years PVRs will be as ubiquitous and as cheap as the DVD player is today.

Once you have tried one, you are never going to go back because you can pre-programme what you want to watch; you can store programmes, advance them, and even make up your own television channel if you like. We are close to the tipping point where they will become mass market.

But why are they so revolutionary?

One of the main reasons I own a PVR is so I can skip adverts. I haven't watched an ad spot for over a year now – of course, apart from my own Premium Bonds one.

Everybody is going to be doing the same soon. Digital devices make it easier than ever to programme out the ads, and what kind of brain-dead viewer is going to sit there solemnly watching them go through if they have the option of jumping? So in my view, advertising has had it, on television.

It is going to be a huge problem for broadcasters. How can you fund commercial television without advertising?

My warning, if you work at a commercial television channel, is to get another job, because at the moment it is advertising that pays your wages.

In eight or nine years' time, the advertisers will not want to pay you because no one will be watching the adverts. It is as simple as that. Defect to the BBC now.

Advertisers and broadcasters are going to have to learn to be cleverer, and to persuade the regulators that sponsorship and product placement are in the long run essential for the survival of television as we know it. The only alternative is cross-media ownership. Broadcasters could buy themselves a newspaper title or a magazine empire because it is a means of getting revenue from advertising. Then television becomes a bolt-on activity subsidised by your other media interests. Your newspapers will promote your programmes and vice versa.

Whatever the solution, my personal opinion is that the days of adverts on TV are numbered.

You can't put the bunny back into the hat; you might not like it, but you cannot stop manufacturers producing high technology devices to record programmes in a digital format.

Before long, people will be watching television downloaded or live streamed, on their mobiles. A different kind of television, perhaps, tailored for the viewer on the move, and offering another kind of direct marketing opportunity.

So my advice to those who make or broadcast programmes is to wake up to what is going on around you. Otherwise commercial television as we know it will close down.

Sir Alan Sugar is the chairman of Amstrad plc. This is an abridged extract from UKTV's new book, The Next Big Thing, a collection of essays about the future of broadcasting, published by Premium Publishing.

[yotter] 19/10/2006 20:58

darrin1471,

The answer to your question is yes.

The fact that someone unloaded a load of AMT this week was a factor.

The fact that AMT continues to be under-rated by the market was another factor.

At some point, these will move up, however, I felt like freeing up some margin for other (shorting) purposes, elsewhere.

I expect to be long AMT at some point soon and would not consider being short AMT.

No doubt this will break £3 now that I've unloaded so I'll have to catch it on the bumps, on the way up.

Regards.


pdyor, imho etc

[darrin1471] 19/10/2006 19:26

Yotter ref:381 "Very happy to be still holding."
Yotter ref: 391 "Must confess to selling yesterday"

Did you sell all your holding?

[yotter] 19/10/2006 11:31

Must confess to selling yesterday, made a few bob so quite happy. Will be watching for an opportune point to buy again in anticipation of H2 numbers.

[spob] 19/10/2006 09:41

I doubt very much he will be putting it back in, since the objective of the exercise is to extract funds from the business, without reducing his shareholding.

[spob] 19/10/2006 09:38

You'll have to ask Integra face that one, since he will be entitled to most of it :)