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Technology Stocks : Gemstar Intl (GMST)
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To: PeterBurgess who wrote (937)11/27/1999 11:59:00 AM
From: NY Stew   of 6516
 
Peter,

The guide has had such counters for years with the ability to
gather intelligence on viewing habits.

I AM IGNORANT of GMST's patents but I am skeptical
that they are going to collect a piece of flesh from
the vendors supplying billions of digital set top boxes which are going to be installed in the next decade -

Skepticism is healthy. Although SFA has filed an antitrust suit against Gemstar they still sent notice requesting meetings for the licensing of certain technologies. General Instruments no longer competes in the guide business beginning with its DTC 5000. Gemstar still seeks damages for the DTC 2000 and was awarded compensation for the analog boxes.

After 7/1/00 the boxes will be retail by the likes of Thomson, Sony, Philips, Matsushita, Zenith and the others. This FCC mandate was a condition to the deregulation of cable. You will see the cable STB functionality built into the TV, DVD players and/or recorders, D-VCR recorders, gameplayers and other more traditional CE products. Cable Ready will finally mean what it says.

Maybe GMST's patents only cover dumb remotes and dumb
analog settop boxes -- the world of the past.

Perhaps, however Gemstar is in HDTV sets from Sharp and Zenith currently. All of DirecTV's STBs are digital and all contain Gemstar. I have heard Craig Mundie of Microsoft say (paraphrased) that as the world moves closer to digital they will incorporate more of Gemstar's technologies. The AOL TV digital offering via DirecTV will have Gemstar inside as does the DishPlayer from MS and Echostar. These few examples are all contrary to analog and dumb in my view.

Convince me that GMST offers future value.

That is an individual decision.

Regards
Stew






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