From: Hal Lockhart <Harold.Lockhart@platinum.com>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 23:39:48 +0800
To: Vin McLellan <rah@shipwright.com>
Subject: Re: dbts: Cryptographic Dog Stocks, The Dirigible Biplane, and   Sending the Wizards Back to Menlo Park
In-Reply-To: <v04020a04b2561b978874@[139.167.130.246]>
Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19981028100547.00a39c1c@pop.bos.platinum.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 06:02 PM 10/26/98 -0400, Vin McLellan wrote:

>	No one who knows anything about SDTI and that market would say that
>the only thing SDTI has that is worth anything is its stake in Verisign
>(and, of course, it was Rob, not the Globe, who said that.)

I've been waiting for somebody to mention that (according to
www.ncipher.com) one of the primary investors in Ncipher, which is the
company Bob touted in the rant that started this thread, is none other than
SDTI.

They also list investments by Newbridge and no less than three V.C.
companies.  Seems at odds with Bob's claim that they "used little, if any,
venture capital money".  However, I have not information about the history
or extent of investment in this company, so I bow to Bob's insider
knowledge. (Bob, I thought you were going to stop posting insider knowledge
to this list.  Or was it that you were going to stop NOT posting ...)

As an aside about Ncipher, while I am sure they are smart guys and will do
well, isn't a hardware crypto engine pretty much a commodity product?  How
can a company like this resist an onslaught from an IBM or an Intel if they
decided this niche was large enough to go after?

Regards,

Hal
====================================================================
Harold W. Lockhart Jr.               PLATINUM technology
Chief Technical Architect            8 New England Executive Park
Email: Harold.Lockhart@platinum.com  Burlington, MA 01803 USA
Voice: (781)273-6406                 Fax: (781)229-2969
====================================================================