re: Van Wagoner
They're getting into the internet IPOs before they come public.
See below. I recall Kaufman funds used to do that. I guess if one flips those IPOs enough, that strategy no longer is available to the fund.
Van Wagoner Funds
Garrett Van Wagoner's Net strategy has helped propel his two small company funds to the top of the small-cap charts after a miserable 1997 and a rebuilding 1998. His $425 million Emerging Growth fund ranks No. 2 among all small-cap funds in 12-month returns, up 74%; his $85 million Van Wagoner Post Venture is No. 1 for the same period, up 102.5%.
Van Wagoner invests heavily in communications. "A theme in the portfolio is getting people connected," says Peter Kris, managing director at Van Wagoner. "We talk to a lot of telecom companies involved in the development of wider bandwidth and making efficient use of voice, data and video as a means of communication."
With so much of the emerging technology tied to the Internet, Kris says the firm is constantly bumping into companies involved in Internet strategies. "We end up learning what's happening in the Valley," he says.
Unlike the Janus managers -- whose fund's charter dictates they buy companies either at their IPO or in the after-market -- Van Wagoner has the flexibility to invest in Internet companies before they go public. And he often does. "It's not really a big part of our strategy," says Kris. "It's a product of our research."
Van Wagoner took stakes in high-speed equipment maker Com21 (Nasdaq:CMTO - news) and iVillage before they became public. Com21 is up 173% since its May 21, 1998, IPO.
Netro, a wireless broadband access play, is yet another emerging firm on which Van Wagoner is betting. The San Jose-based company is targeting the automatic teller machine market with a product that would enable the machines to use wireless data transmission. The company is still private.
Buying Internet firms before they go public is a strategy that may seem risky to some small-cap managers. But getting in on the ground floor of fast-growing firms is what small-cap investing is all about. One thing's for sure: While others continue the Net-investing debate, those managers with a little Web bravado are making peers pale by comparison.
article on small caps
cbs.marketwatch.com |
