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By Kevin Keane, IAPHC CEO iMac Amuck? Well folks, it appears that we will be inundated with hoopla for the iMac. We've written about the new Apple Computer consumer product in this space before. We still don't understand the absence of a floppy drive, but apparently both Iomega and Imation will be marketing external drives for the iMac. One interesting twist is that the iMac will not have a scuzzy port. So, having weighed in with our questions, we note as a true-blue, card- carrying MacManiac that people are advance ordering the computer all over North America, and Apple has intimated as a prelude to this week's MacWorld in New York that as many as 400,000 iMac's may ship in the quarter ending September 30. Oh Baby, its the Baby Doc On July 1, Xerox Corporation announced the DocuTech 6100 Publisher which is a somewhat slower version of its big brother, the DocuTech. The 6100 prints at speeds up to 96 pages per minute, versus the 135ppm of the full blown DocuTech. "A tremendous demand exists for economical print-on-demand equipment operating at speeds of less than 135ppm," said Thomas Wetjen of Xerox, "The DocuTech 6100 will accelerate the transition from light-lens and offset to digital." The latter comment about transition is why we referred to the DocuTech rated speed as 'printing' and not copying. Xerox is expecting that the market for the duplication of black and white pages will grow from 734 billion pages today to more than a trillion pages by the year 2000. Importantly, the percentage of analog copies made on Xerox equipment dropped by 2% in the most recent year while the percentage of digital copies (printing?) increased by 30%. We again draw readers attention to the marvelous article about Xerox in the June 28th Sunday Washington Post, as referenced in last week's Tuesday Morning News (TMN.) Presstek's Progress Another of our favorite companies to watch, we found the news from July 1st for Presstek to be intriguing. Revenues will be up a bit for the quarter but earnings will be down. As noted in last week's TMN, Presstek's stock price is now dwelling in the lower end of its yearly range. The company also acknowledged that it will incur reduced annual revenues from Heidelberg to the tune of $29 million. Multi the Phoenix? Multigraphics shall rise again? In late June, Multigraphics announced the acquisition of Progressive Lithoplate and Supply Company of Chicago, just the latest in a string of acquisitions by Multi which is determined to grow through the purchase of related businesses. Multigraphics has a venerable history in the duplicator side of the industry. We've been writing frequently in this space about the remarkable consolidation happening in the printing industry. Consolidation is occurring on the dealer and distribution side of the graphic arts as well, and so far, the strategy seems to be paying off for this firm which for a long time saw its stock price in the de minim us category and now has risen to a respectable $7.50 a share. Fuji for the Money Jean-Marie Eveillard is portfolio manager and president of SoGen funds and president of Societe Generale Asset Management. His track record in international investment would be nearly impossible to beat -- in 19 years at the helm of SoGen he's had only one off year, 1990, when his fund lost 1%. Therefore when he speaks well of a firm most of us in the graphic arts are quite familiar with, it's time to listen: "Another group of desirable Japanese stocks are good businesses selling at a fair price. One example is Fuji Photo Film (FUJIY) which has an ADR (American Depository Receipt). After you strip the net cash from the market capitalization and put a reasonable value on the 50% stake in Fuji Xerox, you're not paying much for the basic business of a successful multinational." July/August Bloomberg Personal Finance magazine. Fuji Photo Film is one of our valued sponsors of the Communicating on the Internet section of our award winning website CraftNet. (http://www.iaphc.org) CTTP Just a reminder that the Computer to Plate Pressroom Forum now has 1000 members. The forum is sponsored by Digital Art Exchange (DAX). David Mainwaring is the moderator, and has been since its inception in 1996. If interested, e-mail the list administrator (admin@ctpp.com) Crain-Drummond to Close in Ottawa RL Crain was not only the first president of the Ottawa Club (1938); he was founder of Crain-Drummond, a firm which eventually became the second largest player in the Canadian business-forms market behind Moore Business Forms. The experience of the firm in trying to master and take advantage of new technology was not entirely successful and eventually the company was sold in 1989 to Uarco and then again in 1997 to Reynolds and Reynolds. In June, workers at he Ottawa facility learned that their plant will close next February. Some time ago, we had a chat with Marc Matthias of the Silicon Valley Club. Marc has sold lots of business forms over the years. We asked him how advancing technology impacted the continuous forms business. He commented that when the laser printer first appeared he felt reasonably secure that his customers would not immediately unplug their daisy wheel printers and convert to the new sheet fed printers. In the actual event, customers did exactly that. Not unlike printers who unplugged their Compugraphic or similar typesetting machine and converted to desktop devices, seemingly overnite. Our thanks to Lesley Addy of Ottawa for the last item and to John Kohnke of the San Francisco Club for several of the earlier items. Just a reminder that we need your industry tidbits, your insights and even your gossip to make Tuesday Morning news a fun and interesting e-newsletter.
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