AFTER THE CLOSE ******
TUESDAY - AFTER HOURS: While Net investors were probably too busy licking their wounds to have noticed, a couple of tech companies reported earnings after Tuesday's close... Novell (NOVL 23 1/4 -1/4) earned $0.11 in the quarter, besting the consensus estimate by one cent and its year ago gain by an impressive six cents... Revenues rose by 20% to $316 mln... Doubt it no more, NOVL has turned the corner... Don't believe us, Dr. Eric Schmidt, NOVL's Chairman and CEO, noted that "Novell is on its way to becoming a growth company again... as the market's response to NetWare 5 has exceeded our plans." Schmidt went on to say that Novell has never had a stronger new product." While Briefing.com remains a fan of NOVL's stock over the long-term, near-term we don't expect much reaction to the earnings report as stock price already reflects the good news... NOVL trades at more than 48x estimated FY99 earnings... Intuit (INTU 77 9/16 +1 7/16) also beat estimates handily, reporting a pro forma gain of $0.73... Street expected company to earn $0.70 vs. year ago gain of $0.20... Revenues surged 48%, ex-Lacrete numbers... Company noted that revenue and net income in the third quarter benefited from the launch of QuickBooks 99 in January, strong growth in personal tax products and Internet e-finance services, and new business from the Lacerte acquisition... Third quarter results also reflected the highly seasonal nature of INTU's businesses... Based on strong results and improved technical backdrop, Briefing.com expects stock, which has backed off in recent weeks along with rest of tech sector, to stage a near- to intermediate-term assault on 90 region... In other news, Platinum Technology (PLAT 26 -3/16) is up 3 points in early after hours trading, as DOJ finally approved Computer Associates' (CA 44 3/4 -2) plan to acquire company for $29.25... Briefing.com clients who acted on our Story Stock dated 5/18, in which we highlighted the difference between PLAT's price (24 3/8) and CA's offer price, would have pocketed a quick 19% return... Finally, MindSpring (MSPG 69 -4 1/4) announced a 2-for-1 stock split... Funny, we thought the market was taking care of splitting MSPG's stock all by itself as stock off its 52-wk high by 48%... In case you haven't noticed, stock split announcements no longer generating the excitement they once did... Consequently, don't look for MSPG to rally much on the news... Will require shift in market sentiment for MSPG to get back on track.
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