Hi guys! Found the following article, thought you might be interested. I bought UIHIA last March at 17 and watched it drop to 7. I believed this company had a lot of unrealized value and hung on, it is nice to now be rewarded. You need to just decide if you are a trader of this stock or an investor. I have chosen to be an investor. However, the comparisons of UIHIA to DBCC are ludicrous, and yes, I did own DBCC before the ipo of MKTW.
INTERVIEW-United Pan Europe to grow Web business
February 12, 1999 04:00 PM
By Nadja Rogoszynski
NEW YORK, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Dutch multimedia company United Pan Europe Communications NV UPCOY said Friday it expects its Internet business to constitute at least a third of its revenues over the next few years.
"The Internet is an important part for our company, but not the most important...but over the years it will maybe be one third or better of our business," Mark Schneider, chief executive officer, told Reuters in an interview.
Shares of the owner and operator of cable-based communications networks in Europe soared more than 30 percent during their first day of trading.
The company, 63 percent owned by United International Holdings Inc. UIHIA post offering, had priced 40 million shares at $32.78 per ADR before the market opening.
Goldman Sachs was the lead underwriter.
Schneider said the money will be used to expand the company's Internet and programming unit.
United Pan Europe, among other services, provides streamline video footage on the Internet and hopes to offer digital television and telephony services via one platform in the near future.
"Effectively, television and the Internet will blend together," Schneider said.
In a recent agreement, Microsoft invested $325 million in United Pan Europe and will provide integration software for the company's Internet services.
The raised money will also be used to upgrade some of the cable technology needed to provide such high-tech services to all users.
"We need to provide the consumer premise equipment for computers at home or the office, such as the two way broadband modem," Schneider said.
The service upgrade will include countries like Norway, Holland and Austria among others.
In a highly competitive market, sharing the ground with telephone and satellite companies, United Pan Europe also plans on strengthening its position through acquisitions.
"There are a lot of opportunities in Europe over the next couple of years," he said. "Phone companies will be forced out of the cable business by regulation...that puts lots of subscribers on the market."
United Pan-Europe began operations as a 50/50 joint venture between United International and Philips in July 1995, when both companies contributed most of their European and Israeli multi-channel television system assets to the new company.
((--Wall Street Desk (212) 859 1730)) REUTERS
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