Reposted from the Yahoo thread:
BANCBOSTON ROBERTSON STEPHENS
Keith E. Benjamin, CFA
July 17, 1999
This week, the NETDEX index decreased 3.4% from last week to 624.97. For comparison, the
NASDAQ ended the week up 2.4% from last week.
...
GEMSTAR'S MICROSOFT DEAL EXPANDS FOOTPRINT - Microsoft will invest $400
million in Rogers Communications, the largest cable operator in Canada, and will install Windows
CE as the operating system in at least 1 million Rogers' set-top boxes. Rogers passes 2.8 million
homes in Canada. Of those, 2.5 million are passed with two-way cable. We believe Gemstar will
collect license fees and a share of advertising revenue from Electronic Program Guides in these
boxes, demonstrating the ability of licensing deals with Microsoft, AOL, and others to rapidly grow
revenue with minimum incremental investment by Gemstar. We believe a deal with AT&T would
lift any final shroud of doubt that Gemstar can continue to benefit from its patented technology,
with very positive implications for the stock. We believe settlement talks between Gemstar and TV
Guide/TCI/AT&T have continued through this week, which we view as a positive indicator that we
are likely to hear some resolution in a matter of days or weeks rather than months or years.
... |
