The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy can’t help but laugh a bit when he reads IT coverage that’s completely out of touch with Wall Street coverage. The latest example involves Netgear.

On April 24, Netgear reported weaker-than-expected financial resuts — as documented by Barron’s. By April 28, CRN was reporting that Netgear planned to “take Interop by storm” with a series of product and partner announcements. CRN even includes a shameless slide show of Netgear product beauty shots.

Somewhere between the Barron’s hard-hitting coverage and CRN’s gift-wrapped Netgear promotions, the truth resides: Netgear shares are trading at a 52-week low. The company is releasing new products and polishing its partner program in an attempt to fend off rising competition from Cisco’s Linksys brand.