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Technology Stocks : HIGH SPEED ACCESS {HSAC} -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Goldbug Guru who wrote (129)	6/9/1999 12:55:00 AM
From: Goldbug Guru	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 963

STOCKHOUSE.com Miami, FL, June 4 /SHfn/ -- High Speed Access has the right big names behind the company, the right market niche for the next big wave of Internet expansion throughout the US, and two household Nasdaq names in the IPO. Yes, another player in the high-speed cable access market. Hence, the name. This one took some digging around to discover. Our usual sources must have been asleep at the wheel. High Speed Access [HSAC] probably has more going for it than when @Home [ATHM] debuted in May 1997. @Home spent some $38 million establishing its base in their select markets. HSAC has already spent more than $130 million to gain a foothold in the "exurban" marketplace. For those not in the know, this comprises cable system areas in which there are fewer than 100,000 homes passed with cable - about 48 million wired homes or about one-half of all cable households in America. The name of the game is nailing down exclusive agreements with cable operators. That indicates how large your potential customer base can grow. HSAC already has exclusive agreements with eleven cable operators, covering 43 cable systems, with lines running past some 868,000 homes. An additional 230,000 homes are passed with another 23 cable operators in 30 systems. Because Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures, which owns 54% of HSAC before the IPO, owns Charter Communications, the seventh largest US cable operator, Charter has agreed to provide HSAC with at least 750,000 homes passed. There is also probably good reason for HSAC to write in its SEC filing, "Vulcan has an equity incentive to cause Charter to provide us up to an additional 5 million homes passed." This isn't small potatoes. From what we've have gathered, HSAC is widely oversubscribed, even with an IPO of thirteen million shares carrying a pricing of $13/share. Underwriters have an over-allotment option to purchase nearly two million more shares. Microsoft [MSFT] agreed to purchase $10 million and Cisco [CSCO] agreed to take $7.5 million. Also getting $1 million is Com21 [CMTO], a leading provider of communications solutions for the broadband access market, and named the fourth fastest growing public company in Silicon Valley for 1998 by The San Jose and Silicon Valley Business Journal. Lehman Brothers is book-running lead manager, J.P. Morgan is joint lead manager, and co-managers Banc of America Securities LLC and CIBC World Markets are acting as co-managers for the offering. All four underwriters have strong experience with Internet and other IPOs. Their combined list of underwritten public companies looks like a who's who of Internet stocks. Their associated intensity might result in a strong opening for HSAC, with effective follow-up once the quiet period ends next month. What's the competition like? The usual suspects in the broadband access world fill out the line up: @Home, RoadRunner [RRVG], the ISP Channel, Online System Services [WEBB], and Convergence.com. However, in its own "Pepsi Taste Test," @Home, through @Home Solutions, has passed only 20,000 exurban homes compared to HSAC's one million plus, or multi-million plus depending on how involved Charter becomes. In this case, HSAC has the jump over @Home. Because AT&T [T] has aligned with Excite@Home, there may be an opportunity for another phone company - such as Sprint [FON] or MCI WorldCom [WCOM] - to align with HSAC. Or is this another Microsoft-led conspiracy to capture a big slice of the broadband access market?