robert,
i realize u were not asking for my opinion, as it is essentially worthless, but i too am trying to compare shop for the upcoming week....i for one think insweb has more potential....they are in a huge billion dollar mkt. that has essentially been uptapped so far(online anyway)....and insweb already has brand recogntion...although some might argue, i feel they are first to mkt. also......they match insurers with customers with respect to auto,home,health,life and renters insurance amongst other things....they have had 11.7M in revenues so far...but the key to their success is their relationship with softbank...this already makes them allies with etrade,e-loan and yahoo....its not a coincidence that e*offering is one of the underwriters...so far softbank has taken a 65M stake in insweb...they have also agreed to start up insweb japan....this shows tremendous faith in this comapany...softbank likes to take sucessful US companies and take them to asia and europe(ie--yahoo japan, yahoo UK, yahoo korea)....like engage, the offering is lead by GS so no adavantage there....engage on the other hand, deals with marketing and advertising...they profile and target visitors/customers for internet based businesses....this too will be a huge mkt. in the future....but unfortunately, there are already well estblished companies in this sector...i can think of over 10 companies that already operate in this inet sector....the first to mkt. adavantage doesnt exist here....companies like doubleclick, 24/7 media,modem media, flycast, iixl and a myriad of others that are escaping my feeble mind right now already operate and dominate this sector...lastly, they are backed and controlled by CMGI....while CMGI is an excellent company, they are not in the same class as softbank....softbank thinks globally while cmgi thinks locally...the internet revolution hasnt happened in asia and europe yet, and softbank is in a better position to exploit this than cmgi IMO....david wetherall is no masayoshi son....do the DD and i bet u will agree....well, these are my humble opinions(and prob. wrong), but i like insweb abit more...but i will still try to get the engage ipo via wit...goodluck.
mact |
