ATI Soundview conference

[kemosabe]

http://www.vcall.com/ClientPage.asp?ID=88931

Dave Rolston had lots to say earlier today, but essentially the gloves are off and the war of words with Nvidia is fully declared. In obvious reaction to the comments made by NVDA management in their recent conference call, ATI has reiterated its lofty revenue guidance. They cite huge OEM demand for their PCI-E parts and even claim that this is partly why X800 chips have been slow to ramp in retail. Satisfied with yields. Firmly deny that they are putting unusual pricing pressure on competitors by dumping low-end inventories (as Jen-Hsun had insinuated). Rolston also took a huge swipe at Huang over the SM3.0 propaganda.

Worth the time for anyone interested in the company as an investment. ATI's stock got hammered again today amidst broad weakness in the tech sector, but personally I don't recall as attractive an opportunity to pick up some cheap shares.

 

[jimmyjames123]

but personally I don't recall as attractive an opportunity to pick up some cheap shares

Huh? ATI's stock was down to about $4 in the beginning of 2003

 

[kemosabe]

but personally I don't recall as attractive an opportunity to pick up some cheap shares

Huh? ATI's stock was down to about $4 in the beginning of 2003

Very true in hindsight, but the investment risk at that time was far greater in comparison since they were still unprofitable and it wasn't certain that they'd benefit from sustainable market share recovery (nobody could have predicted the magnitude of the NV30 fiasco). In other words, while there was more money to be made buying back then, I'd feel much safer investing in ATYT today despite the lower chances of making a killing.

 

[Megadeth]

The conference call is definitely listening to as Dave Rolston is not your normal marketing-type guy. He is not afraid to say what is needed and I really liked that he addressed those incorrect points that NV recently made about ATI. And I like how the entire thing was started by ATI stating that their revenue target (another record quarter) is not changing.

EDIT: Spelling

 

[thegrommit]

Interesting call. The second half is when the Q&A gets going, and is worth a listen.

- PC is about 90% of the business
- Of that 90%, 55/45 split between desktop and notebook
- 1% royalties from Gamecube
- Digital TV/handhelds makes up the difference
- Lots of emphasis on power consumption and heat. Understandable given that 40% of their business is notebook
- Worst case Doom3 performance deficit is 25%, and it's obvious folks at ATI have been following Humus' thread as the "40% improvement" claim was mentioned
- Three big games that will drive upgrades. What's the third?

The SM3.0 dig at the end was amusing, though I noticed he claimed that SM2.0 performance on ATI cards was faster than SM3.0 (presumably on Nvidia's hardware, though it wasn't explicitly state).

 

[kemosabe]

Three big games that will drive upgrades. What's the third?

I got the sense that he was referring to FarCry along with D3 and HL2.