Stock Analyst Downgrade Of Check Point

[BarryStiefel]

Stock analyst downgrade of Check Point

Any thoughts from resellers about this?

[RobertGraham]

Foolish, CHKP is very undervalued. They are big buyout target that means a lot of value for shareholders. I say buy...

[melipla]

I hesitate to agree with you Robert. This article seems to supoort the pdf:
http://www.varbusiness.com/showArtic...leId=191902323

Besides, who would want to buy Check Point? I don't see a buyout as being advantageous for users of Check Point products.

[RayPesek]

Doesn't Check Point say they patented the stateful firewall in the early part of the 1990's?

Maybe they should blow the dust off those papers and see if the patent is still in effect and whether they can garner some royalty payments from the other vendors claiming to have stateful firewalls.

Ray

[RobertGraham]

I'm not saying it's a growth stock. Nor am I suggesting that a buyout would be advantageous to CHKP customers. What I am saying is that the company is a cash cow with solid revenues. If it were to be bought out, the purchase would significantly increase the stock price.

Furthermore, I'm convinced that it can't go on like this. Even if it doesn't get bought, it would have to improve its situation. I highly doubt that it would continue to let its situation worsen much farther.

Very good article though - I hope the management team at Check Point is paying attention.

[chillyjim]

Originally Posted by RayPesek

Doesn't Check Point say they patented the stateful firewall in the early part of the 1990's?

Maybe they should blow the dust off those papers and see if the patent is still in effect and whether they can garner some royalty payments from the other vendors claiming to have stateful firewalls.

Ray

I think the Patten might have expired now, but it was intential that Gill Shewed(sp?) who holds the patten never enforced it.

[melipla]

Originally Posted by RobertGraham

If it were to be bought out, the purchase would significantly increase the stock price.

I think that would depend on who bought them... Cisco buying CHKP probably wouldn't positively affect the stock price. Irregardless I don't see Check Point allowing itself to be bought.

Originally Posted by RobertGraham

Furthermore, I'm convinced that it can't go on like this. Even if it doesn't get bought, it would have to improve its situation. I highly doubt that it would continue to let its situation worsen much farther.

I don't see anything in the works to drastically improve the situation...if they could've purchased Source Fire then I might be a little more optimistic.

[sebastan_bach]

hi all to be frank checkpoint is a very advanced product with many features in it which probably other vendors don;t have it in them . but along with this features other vendors like fortinet and netscreen are doing very good in the market their market penetration is more as compared to checkpoint. since nowadays the technoliogies are more or same with other vendors with little trciks here and there. but the main things comes with cost and manageability. in checkpoint there are so many management solutions prople get consfused as to use which one for it. they still don;t have dedicated IPS in their line of products and worst of all is their licensing. i have seen companies huge sum only for licensing every year that too for nothing new but just for renweing them. first their product itself is so expensive and then on top it it gives a added cost year after year to the customers. since people buy checkpoint over nokia and then again customers need to buy license for nokia and expense of the appliance too. so checkpoint overall comes at a very expensive affair.

firewalls like fortinet are killers in the soho and smb segment and netscreen and asa are rocking in the enterprise series.

people are migrating from checkpoint to asa or netscreen and fortinet they are having almost everything what checkpoint does and and still at a better cost.

just my views.

regards

sebastan

[melipla]

Originally Posted by sebastan_bach

people are migrating from checkpoint to asa or netscreen and fortinet they are having almost everything what checkpoint does and and still at a better cost.

I see two things here. Edge devices are cheaper and probably on par with other SOHO solutions. I will say that SmartDashboard + SmartView Tracker are the best managment tools availabe and a point where Check Point stands above the other solutions.

Being able to "purchase" a firewall is another good point you brought up. As far as I know you can get Check Point licenses that don't expire. ...I thought software support was optional? I know edge devices handle licenses differently so that may not be the case there.

[sebastan_bach]

hi there is no concept of unedxpirable license in checkpoint. i had a talk with them . there is a maximum license for 3 yrs and then u will have to renew the license once again.

regards

sebastan

[melipla]

Originally Posted by sebastan_bach

hi there is no concept of unedxpirable license in checkpoint. i had a talk with them . there is a maximum license for 3 yrs and then u will have to renew the license once again.

Guess I should become more familiar w/licensing. I stumbled upon this today, thought it had some interesting points:
Check Point Q2 Financials [www.checkpoint.com]

Overall their numbers appeared to be lower this year compared to last year...

[chillyjim]

Originally Posted by sebastan_bach

hi there is no concept of unedxpirable license in checkpoint. i had a talk with them . there is a maximum license for 3 yrs and then u will have to renew the license once again.

regards

sebastan

You miss understand, the longest support contract you can buy is 3 years. The software is a perpetual license.