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Non-Tech : Wit Capital Group Inc - (Nasdaq - WITC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy who wrote (711)	7/20/1999 10:32:00 PM
From: mod	Respond to of 845

Elroy, You need the analysts to get the investment banking deals. Part of the quid pro quo for getting a lead or co-manager position is providing research after the quiet period ends. If Wit wants more shares and more deals, they need to be able to provide research coverage. I see a lot of Wall Street research, and Wit research is just as good. And much cheaper. mod

To: Elroy who wrote (711)	7/20/1999 10:59:00 PM
From: Bob Kim	Respond to of 845

RE: Question for the thread - what's the value of Wit's Research? >>Has anyone here ever read a Wit Research report? Was it valuable? Did it contain anything beyond what was in the prospectuses and press releases? Did it change your investment decision, or influence your decision at all? I have read some of the research. My reaction is mixed. In some cases, they have gone beyond the competition in providing extra information. In other cases, they just sound like cheerleaders for companies they have underwrote. For some companies, Wit seems to be more active than the competition. >>Gotta wonder what the benefit is of a big, expensive research department for Wit. At regular investment banks, the Research Analysts primarily cater to institutions (portfolio managers) in the hopes of getting their vote for the annual Institutional Investor poll. Since (I think) big institutional trading commissions is not a major goal for Wit, what in the world are they going to do with highly paid analysts? Does Wit think their customers really want to download PDF files to read the analyst's opinions of the stock? The smaller specialty investment banks have usually not cared about II rankings as much as the big firms. I think getting deals are the key to profits, and analysts can help bring in deals or win deals. PDF's aren't too bad. Many research systems use PDFs. >>The primary reason for the increased compensation costs was due to the hiring of 58 new personnel over the past three months, primarily representing key members of Wit Capital's investment banking, research, technology and customer care teams. From what I've heard, Wit needs the customer care teams. >>I wanna hear the case for expanding the research team to 20 analysts (any analyst-defenders out there??). Punt the analysts (expense generators) and hire 20 extra investment bankers (revenue generators)! I think an investment bank needs analysts (but not necessarily their analysis) to help get the deals and support the deals after the offerings. You really don't see too much support for recent IPOs coming from the non-participating firms. Companies usually like to see their stocks supported in the aftermarket. That's my cut at it. Bob