Good news for NSCP. It seems we are heading for a big rally.
ht-Ridder/Tribune Business News
Friday, May 15, 1998 2:02PM
May 15 (San Jose Mercury News/KRTBN) via
NewsEdge Corporation - NETSCAPE IS ALIVE
AND WELL: We now interrupt the regularly
scheduled Microsoft programming elsewhere on
these pages for an important announcement:
Netscape Communications Corp. (Nasdaq, NSCP)
is not dead.
On the contrary, the fallen Internet idol has been
busy rejuvenating itself and plans a series of
announcements in the next several weeks that
promise to fuel the burgeoning comeback of its
once spent stock.
As any astute follower of the controversies
between the Washingtons (Redmond and D.C.)
knows, Netscape is Exhibit A in the
jurisprudentially groundbreaking assertion that
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq, MSFT) isn't very nice.
Shares of Netscape went into free fall when
Microsoft started giving away Internet browsers,
the product Netscape pioneered.
But there's new life in Netscape's stock these days
-- up almost 80 percent in a month to Thursday's
close of $28.69 -- as the Mountain View company
is implementing its "Project 60," a two-month effort
to re-create its NetCenter Web site as an
eyeball-grabbing "portal" on the Internet.
Already, Netscape has announced a handful of
deals for content on its site and a $70-million
co-branding and technology agreement with Excite
Inc. (Nasdaq, XCIT), which is paying to receive a
quarter of the traffic Netscape refers to search
engines.
Next, Netscape is set to announce traffic-referral
agreements with as many as four more search
engines, and blockbuster electronic commerce
deals, including one to offer online brokerage and
banking.
Jennifer Bailey, a Netscape vice-president,
confirmed the banking and stock brokerage plan,
though she wouldn't identify Netscape's partner.
She also wouldn't comment on the status of the
search-engine negotiations. "It's hard to tell
because it's never done until it's over," she said.
But the hype surrounding the talks and Netscape's
promised pronouncements already have helped the
stock even though Wall Street expects the
company to report a loss for the first part of the
year.
Netscape's next two weeks include: the
announcement on May 26 of its results for the first
four months of the year (including a "stub" period of
one month caused by a change in its fiscal year);
the re-launch of its Web site on June 1; and a
glitzy analyst and media day in San Francisco on
June 4.
"If you cover the Net, the players, and what lies
ahead ... don't miss this briefing," the company
writes in an invitation to the gala.
After the roller-coaster ride of Netscape's stock
following its August, 1995, initial public offering,
investors remain keenly interested. Offered at a
split-adjusted $14, it rose as high as $78 the
following January but fell as low as $16 last month.
"For a long time Netscape was synonomous with
the Internet," notes Daniel H. Rimer, an Internet
analyst with Hambrecht & Quist in San Francisco
who recently recommended again that clients buy
Netscape's stock.
"For the next year they've got a great opportunity
to be a player as a portal," says Rimer, using the
new vogue word referring to Web sites that compile
a wide variety of content in hopes of attractive large
audiences. "But it's one thing selling all the
billboards on your Web site. It's another thing
generating revenue from the site."
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