Well, options expiry is done and IDT ala NTOP, continues to gain recognition as well as Market share in the budding IP_Telephony market.
GE CAPITAL SEES
SNAP, Net2Phone DEAL
NBC played role in
investment; IDT Corp. gets
upgrade
STAMFORD, Conn.-- NBC-affiliated portal Snap Online is eyeing
Internet phone service with IDT Corp.'s Net2Phone unit to boost its
e-commerce offerings, an official with GE Capital told
CBS.MarketWatch.com.
GE Capital's managing director, Jeff Coats, said NBC had approached
General Electric's financing unit about investing in an upcoming $50
million Net2Phone IPO, which was filed on Tuesday by parent IDT
Corp. (IDTC). Both NBC and GE Capital are units of industrial giant
General Electric (GE). Snap, a Web portal, is a joint venture between
NBC and CNet (CNET).
GE Capital will own 5.4 percent, or 2.3 million shares, in Net2Phone,
according to IPO papers filed Tuesday. See story.
"NBC has an investment in Snap, and they've been getting deeply into
Internet commerce," Coats said. "This was a natural. Net2Phone (is)
certainly going to be a great e-commerce support and enabling
vehicle. We like their management and technology."
Months of courtship
Coats said that nothing has been signed yet but that there's been an
interest from NBC in Net2Phone for months.
Snap ranks as the 12th most popular site on the Web, with 9.8 million
unique visitors a month, according to the latest estimates from
MediaMetrix.
Net2Phone, which already has distribution deals with Yahoo and
Netscape, would gain reach and possibly increase its customer base
by adding Snap.
Net2Phone doesn't disclose the worth of such deals, but the company
is slated to post $70 million in revenue in fiscal year 2000, up from
$40 million in 1999, according to Friedman Billings Ramsey.
Analyst Riyad Said of Friedman Billings Ramsey said a "crude"
estimate of the worth of a possible Snap deal is $12 million or more a
year in revenue.
Shares of IDT dipped 1/4 to 26 5/16 on Friday.
In a related move concerning Hackensack, N.J.-based IDT Corp.,
Friedman Billings Ramsey raised its rating on the company to "buy"
from "selective buy" and set a 12-month price target of $38.
"We believe that execution of this long-awaited Net2Phone IPO will
enable the company to unlock the value and exploit its leadership
position in this burgeoning market segment," analyst Said said in a
research brief. "This will also enable investors to more easily track
both the core telecom business and the Net2Phone business going
forward."
GE Capital strategy
GE Capital's first investment in the Internet space was the $8 million it
put into Auto-By-Tel in 1996. The online car dealer went public six
weeks ago.
Coats aid GE saw an opportunity to boost GE's auto financing,
insurance and leasing businesses by backing Auto-By-Tel.
"It was a beautiful relationship to get started with," he said. "We tend
to work with our sister operating businesses in the investments that we
make."
GE Capital is nearing a business-to-business Internet deal in the next
few weeks, he said. Other beneficiaries of GE Capital Web investments
include shopping site ValueVision; Xoom.com; Preview Travel; and
Telescan, a financial information site.
"We find investment opportunities, (and then) we take it to our sister
business and we'll do the underwriting and due diligence," he said.
"We manage the investment for them."
He wouldn't say specifically what GE Capital's return on its Internet
investments has been. "It's on a par with what other investors are
experiencing in this space," he said. "It's a very healthy return."
This article was late in the day and will be more influential in the coming weeks as these as well as "other'[ deals unfold.
Earnings will be by my own estimate ~.13/share with more upgrades to follow as well as the CC in which IDT will most like give a clear direction of where they are headed...Up, for the near as well as distant future....Some folks may have been dissappointed that NTOP shares were not discussed in the IPO for IDT sharesholders, what a bunch of Whooey, IDT shareholders own 66% of NTOP.
The bottom Line is this in my opinion, is an absolute WIN-WIN scenario for shareholders and those that do not see it that way are imo..short sighted. I have maintained that my reason for Investing in IDT, was not for NTOP and that a NTOP spin is gravy. The Calling card Biz and reselling of minutes is IDT's cash cow for now and has been since they entered the market, the reselling of minutes over their backbone continues to perform well. AOL, will only add to core revenues once pc2pc is in effect and I expect to see more "deals" with AOl as a result of their Interest in NTOP, that being said GE, has already made it public of their plans to expand the relationships they have with their other affiliate investments to help make NTOP a household name just like GE continues to be...
All of this for 26-27 Bucks, now there's ythe No Brainer of the year!
more later,
cheers
PS, I forgot to mention BANDWIDTH...... |
