Amigos Y Amigas
Is Go2Net the place we should go to?
Silicon Investor and go2net merger?
April 23, 1998
At midnight last night, we signed a merger agreement with go2net
(NASDAQ: GNET), a publicly traded internet company located in Seattle,
Washington. We issued a press release announcing the transaction this
morning.
Some SI History
Silicon Investor was born on August 8, 1995, exactly one week before the
Netscape IPO. Our first office was in the heart of Silicon Valley about 3
miles South of Apple headquarters. While in Silicon Valley, we met with
more than a dozen of the country's top venture capitalists. After making
the rounds (and receiving various term sheets as well as being rejected
many times), we learned that the best way to help SI develop in the
formative years was to stay independent and unfunded.
We moved the company to Kansas in November of '97. Our stay in the
land of Oz has been time well spent. We have had a lot more time to roll
out new features such as private messaging, quotes and portfolios, charts
on all stocks, a spell checker, and have broken ground on several more
projects such as private forums where members will have admin
privileges.
While in Kansas, we have also been doing some tornado watching. The
Internet has entered a new tornado phase and the excitement we feel is
similar to the first day SI went online.
Why go2net?
We believe that a merger with go2net will allow us to preserve the best
elements of SI, while creating countless opportunities to improve and
augment our service through leveraging the development resources of
go2net. It's a continuation and strengthening of what we believe is the
greatest virtual city in existence.
From day one, Brad and I have been searching for a leader that knows
and understands community, finance, technology, media, and the Web.
Russell Horowitz, the CEO of go2net, absolutely fits our criteria. He has
built a talented team, and go2net's culture fits well with SI.
SI is growing up, and it is time to build SI into a company with an
infrastructure that matches the size and scope of the online world of SI.
We think SI has unlimited potential to change the way Wall Street works.
Thousands of the Web's brightest minds meet each day at SI to
exchange ideas and to forge ahead into the new world of online
communication.
The addiction factor of SI continues to remain at all-time high levels. SI
has become the center of life on the financial Web, thanks to its many
contributing members and individual investors that report the news and
state their opinions about companies as they see it. SI members never
cease to amaze with their creativity, humor, and investing acumen.
We chose go2net because of its unique postioning in the Internet
industry. The company is large enough to provide the resources
necessary to grow SI, yet small enough to keep a disposition of
enthusiastic independence.
go2net is focused on product first; their vision is that great product
offerings will produce great future revenue streams. go2net knows the
value of the customer as a long-term partner, as opposed to a
demographic statistic. Above all, go2net will provide a supportive and
creative environment for the SI team.
Feedback
We would like to hear from you, both positive and negative, about merging
with go2net. Unless a real tornado hits Kansas and wipes out SI, this
new partnership we've been working on for many weeks, called Project
Jayhawk, is going to put us on the road headed for Seattle. Please send
us your thoughts and concerns. We'll answer as many as we can! |
