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Technology Stocks : Internet Guru Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve harmon - analyst who wrote (1877)	6/16/1999 12:14:00 AM
From: Bo Didley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4337

NetBank - NTBK - Bigger Bank Buy them up? >the risk here is if netbank can't make it to the altar before bankamerica, wellsfargo and essentially any bank is an online bank as a service< Here is Robertson Stephens Reply: Message 10044982 Build vs. Buy- If a company decided to build vs. buy, we estimate it would take some 18 months just to open the doors (obtaining a charter, hiring banking personnel, etc.). In the Internet world, like in dog years, time travels fast and if a company waited 18 months to get a bank running, it could very well be too late. Even if you did build, you couldn't scale. If you Buy, after the acquisition of Telebanc by ETrade, only Net.B@nk remains as a serious acquisition candidate. Brand-* When consumers think of online brokerage, they think of ETrade, not Merrill Lynch. If consumers want to buy a book, they think Amazon.com, not Barnes and Noble. If I'm a consumer, when I think of Internet banking, will I think Wells Fargo or Net.B@nk? Net.B@nk has the clear brand name creating a competitive advantage over its competitors. * The company plans to expand its marketing initiatives and continue to build brand in 1999 and 2000, extending its existing online relationships with companies like Yahoo!, AOL, Infoseek, Lycos, and Excite. - On the outlook for Internet banking, Cassidy states, ''The Internet is here to stay. It's a very viable delivery channel for bank products, but we do not believe that banks, such as Net.B@nk (Nasdaq: NTBK - news) or TeleBanc (Nasdaq: TBFC - news) are the likely survivors. We believe the banks similar to Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC - news), Fleet, Chase (NYSE: CMB - news), Citigroup (NYSE: C - news) -- very large companies -- can afford to spend the millions and millions of dollars on marketing that will be needed to become a household Internet name similar to Amazon.com. I think the large banks are heading in this direction -- toward the Internet. I believe Bank One (NYSE: ONE - news) and First Union (NYSE: FTU - news) have already committed to this strategy. I think a select group of large banks have the opportunity to alter the banking landscape with well-thought-out Internet banking strategies.'' biz.yahoo.com bo