"Maybe somebody can come up with a more clever and credible way to value the emerging VDATs of the multimedia advertising world, but for the moment I've contented myself to believing that the potential market (as proven by existing TV advertising revenues at a minimum) is huge, and that VDAT is one of the few companies positioned to capitlize on it in a big way anytime soon. As long as they keep executing, that will carry me to $60-$100 per share, maybe even beyond. By then there should be some more meaningful numbers to analyze."
---------------------------------
Trying to value VDAT.
The question is fair the answer is it depends IMO
When I was growing up in the 50's TV came to the neighborhood. At first it was a novelty. Soon it was perpasive. The www growth in the last few years has been phenomenal. The next development in connectivity IMO is the ability to make the www ready for a capable of video as well as audio/print. This last phase has begun. Audio streaming and distribution is much less demanding than video and we are already seeing the browers have radio available on the screens. The streaming development and distribution of video on demand and live video over the net has just begun. The hurdles to entry. First just like tv it took a while for the content providers to justijy the cost of building tv stations and making content for tv. Til the advertisers were willing, ie the audience had tv's they wern't going to fund the new media TV. Similarly til the population is sufficiently broadbanded the content providers and advertisers wern't going to fund the cost of developing the content transmission and storage of digitized content over the www. The current rollout of copper/cable/sat-com broadband services is on going throughout Europe/US and Asia. The numbers are small but they are growing in an exponential way. By the end of this year we can expect to see more vod/live web cast available. What will be VDATS role.. a content site/server and production company. To my knowledge VDAT is the only dedicated producer of video for the net. Why has PRNEWS MSFT MSNBC CNN CNBC come to VDAT/ITVU. These are the questions. I don't have the answer, but I believe from conversations with content providers that the combination of Microsoft's NetShow technology VDATS production/content/server capabilities/and InterVu, which provides streaming media and Internet broadcast solutions for VDAT {patent pending distibution and managementof streaming} are the leaders in this new media technology giving them the only fully integrted system that is ready for the transition to the new e media. The events that have begun will accelerate by the new millenium ie 7 months from now as the broadband predictors suggest. How much was NBC or CBS worth in the radio era and how much are they worth now. How much is a company{s} worth that will allow current TV companies to migrate to the new e media age and give them the capabilities to stream video any time anywhere realtime to any/all that want to watch? I agree the stock got ahead of itself on the MSFT BCST?YHOO news but if and when we get an equity stake by one or more of our partners the stock of VDAT at 40 will have been cheap all IMO. BTW I am not suggesting that there is no down side with this stock as the float is small the stock will be volatile and the MM clearly can control the price of the stock when the volume is down but my bet is a year from now the market cap of VDAT will be a multiple of current levels. This is a story stock. The story just keeps getting more convincing. All IMO Remember the float of VDAT including warrants is tiny 6+M shares even at $25/share the market cap for VDAT is $150----too much for a company positioning itself for growth like VDAT? How much would a network pay in a year or two if the company were for sale?
Visual Data shares rise on new tech strategy
Net content provider adopts Microsoft technology
By Lisa J Ulmer, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 2:14 PM ET Apr 13, 1999NewsWatch
Movers & Shakers
POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (CBS.MW) -- Visual Data Corp. stock shot up as much as 14 percent Tuesday after the creator of original video content for the Internet said it's converting its content libraries to Microsoft Corp.'s new high-bandwidth format.
Visual Data (VDAT: news, msgs) said Microsoft's (MSFT: news, msgs)
NetShow technology, whose use is increasingly becoming standard for
multimedia content on the Web, will be incorporated into all of Visual
Data's broadband content sites including its online broadcast network,
www.videoviewer.com.
"The fact that NetShow is available as a plug-in with Windows 98 will
make Visual Data's video libraries immediately accessible for millions
of Web users," said Visual Data's chief executive Randy Selman in a
statement.
Visual Data's stock began the year hovering around $7 and has steadily
crept up into the $30 range over the last several months, representing a 340 percent drive.
Shares rose 3 1/2 to 35 in recent trading.
Launched in 1993, Visual Data hosts Web sites, which include
www.hotelview.com, www.attractionview.com, www.resortview.com, and
www.careview.com, that provide full-motion video previews of hotels and resorts, theme parks and nursing home facilities.
Visual Data also contracts with PR Newswire to promote and distribute
www.videonewswire.com, which turns client company press releases into
video press releases.
"The rise of Yahoo and CNET has cemented people's vision that content is back," Visual Data's spokesman Brian Posnanski of Middleberg &
Associates told CBS MarketWatch.
Posnanski said Visual Data is planning to release new video developments, most focused on health, travel and business information
content.
"We're looking at acquisitions to expand our capabilities," Selman told CBS MarketWatch.
------------------------
Visual Data Turns to Microsoft NetShow Technology to Broadcast High
Bandwidth Content Online
PR Newswire - April 13, 1999 08:57
POMPANO BEACH, Fla., April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Visual Data Corporation
(Nasdaq: VDAT), which creates and broadcasts original video content for the Internet, today announced that they will be converting their
original video content libraries to Microsoft's new high-bandwidth
NetShow format -- a new standard for multimedia content on the Web.
Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) NetShow technology will be incorporated into all of Visual Data's broadband content sites including VideoViewer.com, (http://www.videoviewer.com) Visual Data's online broadcast network.
Alan Saperstein, executive producer for Visual Data said, "This
technology will provide high-bandwidth audiences the ability to see our content at 30 frames a second, something that was not previously
possible. It is a significant picture and transmission improvement."
"The encoding of our content into Microsoft's new media player will be
done through our partner, InterVu," said Randy Selman, president & CEO
of Visual Data. "The fact that NetShow is available as a plug-in with
Windows 98 will make Visual Data's video libraries immediately
accessible for millions of Web users." Visual Data provides InterVu (Nasdaq: ITVU) with global video production services for its clients.
Visual Data's VideoViewer.com currently offers original video content
under six categories, including Travel, Health/Medicine, Consumer,
Business, Technology and Entertainment. Through these categories, users are able to:
-- Take guided tours of hotels, resorts and attractions.
-- Research healthcare information and medical issues.
-- Look for video news releases, video business information and live
audio and video events.
The number of channels on the site will increase through Visual Data's
growing video and multimedia libraries as well as agreements with other original content providers. To access VideoViewer.com, users should have broadband or high-speed access services.
Visual Data Corporation (http://www.vdat.com) produces, markets and
distributes original video and audio content for the Internet. Visual
Data's extensive video libraries cover a wide range of topics, including travel, education, business, medicine and healthcare, entertainment and consumer products. Through its subsidiary EDnet, Inc. (Nasdaq: DNET), Visual Data has established relationships throughout the motion picture and recording industries. Visual Data's strategic partnerships include PR Newswire, a subsidiary of the United News and Media that provides breaking news and information; InterVu, which provides streaming media and Internet broadcast solutions; TravelWeb, a service of Pegasus Systems, Inc.; Interval International; Rezsolutions, a joint venture of Utell International and Anasazi Inc.; Physicians Online; Intellihealth, a joint venture of Aetna US Healthcare and Johns Hopkins University and Health System.
SOURCE Visual Data Corporation
/CONTACT: Brian Posnanski of Middleberg + Associates, 212-699-2530,
brianp@middleberg.com, for Visual Data Corporation/
/Web site: videoviewer.com
/Web site: vdat.com
(VDAT MSFT ITVU DNET) |
