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Non-Tech : The WOLF PACK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mike Perras who wrote (932)	6/17/1999 10:37:00 PM
From: Spark	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1692

Mike and DoubleOddBuck......No problem!! Thanks for following up and setting things straight... S

To: Mike Perras who wrote (932)	6/21/1999 9:49:00 PM
From: Mike Perras	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1692

Looks like a great long term investment here .. closed up 43% to $15 7/8 By Jeffry Bartash, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 5:28 PM ET Jun 21, 1999 NewsWatch Earnings Surprises NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Shares of Metricom zoomed more than 43 percent higher Monday after MCI WorldCom and Vulcan Ventures agreed to invest $300 million apiece in the small provider of wireless Internet services. Under the deal, MCI WorldCom and Vulcan will help fund the rollout of Metricom's 128Kdigital Ricochet service and distribute the product to prospective customers. The 128K service is slated to be available in mid-2000. See press release. Ricochet gives mobile-computer users to access the Internet via small modems attached to laptops. Right now, the service isn't known much outside its metropolitan markets in San Francisco, Washington and parts of New York. The investment by MCI WorldCom is likely to be seen by investors as a validation of Metricom, which has been seeking new sources of finance. Privately held Vulcan Ventures, the financier run by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, already owns a 49 percent stake in Metricom. Shares of Metricom (MCOM: news, msgs), which posted $16 million in sales last year, surged 4 13/16 to 15 7/8 on heavy volume of 8.6 million shares. "This is quite good for Metricom. They have been looking for a cash infusion," said Naqi Jaffery, a wireless data analyst a Dataquest. "And to have MCI WorldCom on its side is a tremendous boost." Under the agreement, MCI WorldCom and Vulcan Ventures will buy 60 million new convertible preferred shares of Metricom, priced at $10 each. Once exercised, Vulcan would maintain its 49 percent stake, MCI WorldCom would acquire a 38 percent interest and current shareholders would own the remaining 13 percent. Metricom will remain a publicly traded company under the leadership of CEO Timothy A. Dreisbach. MCI WorldCom also signed a $350 million five-year, non-exclusive wholesale agreement with Metricom for its Ricochet services. Metricom will use MCI WorldCom's high-speed data and Internet network and support operations as it expands nationally. Metricom will also initiate a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign targeting mobile professionals. The company had 26,000 subscribers at the end of 1998. Yet Dataquest estimates that could surge to 1.2 million by 2003. Jaffery said Metricom is one of the few services available now offering wireless Internet service and that it'll be at least until the end of 2001 before mainstream digital cellular and PCS providers start offering widescale wireless broadband, albeit at speeds lower than 128K. As a result, Metricom has a "window of opportunity for at least two to three years," he said. "The market is going to be huge. Metricom will find a niche."