This is from a Robertson Stephens PR (3/16/01) in which they changed their opinions on numerous stocks.
· Ariba, Inc.
· (Nasdaq: ARBA - news) $11.06
· Buy
· F2001E EPS: $0.18, down from $0.25
· F2002E EPS: $0.38, down from $0.47
Eric Upin, Business-to-Business eCommerce
``With an increasingly challenging economic environment for enterprise software sales we believe that even the best positioned business software companies are increasingly vulnerable to a major retrenchment in IT spending,'' said Upin. ``As a result, we are taking a first cut at lowering earnings estimates for Ariba, Commerce One, and i2 -- yet, are cognizant of the fact that, depending on the severity and duration of the current economic downturn, additional downward revisions may be in order. While we continue to believe that B2B represents a significant multi-year opportunity -- which over the next several years is likely to be 4-6x the $20 billion ERP market -- we believe Ariba continues to face a challenging near-term risk reward picture for the reasons highlighted above. In order for us to become more aggressive on Ariba, we will need to achieve a higher level of confidence that: (1) there is not significant downside to our revised estimates, (2) the company's core indirect goods procurement business remains solid, (3) Ariba will be able to translate its newly announced direct goods strategy into actual customer wins, and (4) the company will be able to integrate its fourth acquisition in 18 months (Tradex, Trading Dynamics, Supplier Market and Agile).'' |
