Has this been posted yet? Very good article:
This article appears in next Monday's Business Week
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inside Wall Street: A TV-To-Net Linkup
Once upon a time, ACTV IATV was a little-known company--with stock trading at only 2 1/2 back in
mid-November. By mid-April, however, the price had rocketed to 21. The meteoric ascent was fueled partly by its
HyperTV product, which has attracted the attention of such large companies as Liberty Media Group, General
Instrument, and News Corp.'s Fox Sports. The stock has since dipped to 15, but Anthony Stoss, an analyst at
Southeast Research Partners thinks the stock will catch fire again.
What's so hot about HyperTV? It is all about providing digital applications for cable TV, according to Stoss.
HyperTV's concept is to stream data to a PC that gets synchronized to a TV program. It enables cable-TV
networks to run a film or show and allow viewers to log on to their Web site. The viewers could then buy products
advertised on TV through their PCs.
Stoss believes Liberty is eyeing HyperTV, in hopes of enhancing its cable properties by creating an E-commerce vehicle over the Net. In April, Liberty upped its $5 million investment in ACTV with an additional $9 million, with an option to own as much as a 25% stake. Stoss says either Liberty, General Instrument, or News
Corp. could end up buying ACTV. General Instrument owns some 2%.
''More deals are forthcoming for ACTV,'' says Stoss. One that's being worked out with a major tech company: a
system to track customers' viewing patterns. Stoss expects ACTV's estimated 1999 revenues of $4.2 million will
soar to $31 million by 2000. Still in the red, ACTV should narrow its loss to 13 cents a share in 2000, down from an
estimated loss of 55 cents per share in 1999, says Stoss.
BY GENE G. MARCIAL
|
