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Technology Stocks : Texas Instruments - Good buy now or should we wait? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patriarch who wrote (4592)	8/8/1999 1:31:00 PM
From: J.R.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6180

Anyone, What is the status of sale of DRAM business to MU? Thanks in advance for any input. J.R.

To: Patriarch who wrote (4592)	8/11/1999 3:10:00 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6180

Pat, I hope the new IBM will offer a LINUX Version of its new PC with TI's ADSL modem. I have read that there are security problems when you have a line connected to your house because the line is always on so it is fairly easy for hackers to get into your PC. There was an article in The New York Times about the problem recently. Is it fairly difficult to set up a firewall around your home PC? I believe the guy that was mentioned in the article that I read used another PC to serve as firewall. He used LINUX on his PC at home. Hackers broke in and made a mess! Good day for TXN. See it was upgraded with target price of around $180 or $185. Also, the Beige Book Report is good for the market. Best wishes, Mephisto

To: Patriarch who wrote (4592)	8/21/1999 5:53:00 PM
From: Patriarch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6180

Liquid Audio Waters Seeds Of Internet Music By Scott Hillis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Some online music companies want to use the Internet to tear the recording industry down. Liquid Audio Inc. (Nasdaq:LQID - news) is using it to build the industry up. Convinced the Internet will only strengthen major music companies, the Redwood City, Calif.-based company is busily rolling out tools to help them do everything from encrypting songs for Internet delivery to posting them on the Web and playing them on portable devices. ``We don't believe the industry is going to change that much,' Liquid's Chief Executive Officer Gerry Kearby said in a recent interview. ``We've just replaced trucking and the printing press with Internet functionality.' Such thinking is almost heretical in Internet music business circles, where companies like MP3.com Inc., which offers songs by independent artists for free, loudly prophesy the demise of record label Goliaths. Artists like Chuck D, lead vocalist for the rap group Public Enemy, openly deride big music labels while John Perry Barlow, a Grateful Dead songwriter, says the Internet marks the dawn of an age where music will be the common property of mankind. Kearby doesn't downplay the Internet's ability to rewrite the rules of commerce, but says the recording establishment is better equipped to capitalize on the Web than start-ups. ``My motto was 'empower those in power',' Kearby said. ``My strategy was to get into business with them any way you can. Then when they are ready for digital distribution they look around and say, 'Who's been my partner all along?'.' Founded in 1996, Liquid is best known for its pirate-proof alternative to the popular MP3 format that is used to compress music files, making them easier to send over the Internet while preserving CD-quality sound. The big labels don't like MP3 because files can be copied perfectly and given away without paying royalties. Liquid's music player software is found all over the Net and on its lime-green Web site (http://www.liquidaudio.com). Yet the company is banking on its ability to lay the digital groundwork to help labels and artists sell music online. ``We're building the backend so the transaction can happen,' Kearby said. The company has filled out its management ranks, even installing a ``label relations' executive to convince record companies that Liquid is on their side. ``Liquid has hung tough and come a long way, and they've signed a number of deals that put them in position to work with the big music companies, and I think that's very, very important, because the majors have the bulk of the music that consumers want,' said Mark Hardie, a senior analyst with Forrester Research who follows online music. In the studio, musicians can use its ``Liquefier' software to prepare songs for online delivery. In a major boost, EMI Recorded Music, the music unit of EMI Group Plc., has hired Liquid to encode its catalog of CDs in Liquid's format, the first step toward selling them on the Internet. Liquid also provides Internet hosting and advertising. Its Liquid Music Network bands together about 200 Web sites that offer Liquid songs. Tower Records and Amazon.com are among the sites that offer sample Liquid tracks. The company also is extending its reach to the last mile of Internet music -- portable players that can store song files on memory cards or chips and be taken anywhere. Liquid has teamed with Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE:TXN - news) and SanDisk Corp. to offer consumer electronics makers a ready-made platform to put into such players. Texas Instruments will make the processor while SanDisk makes the stamp-sized memory cards that will store music. The first deal with a major consumer electronics company to use the platform in a portable device is expected soon. Liquid also is working with Korean and Japanese companies to put Internet kiosks in retail stores there so customers can pick out music online and have a CD custom-made in the store. To help fuel growth on all these fronts, Liquid took its stock public last month in an offering that raised $63 million. Though the stock quickly hit $48 a share, it fell to a low of 17-7/8 but had recovered to more than 23-5/8 Wednesday. But is Liquid spreading itself too thin? ``I continue to think they are trying to do too many things, but (Kearby) has a good counterargument, which is that there are no set rules right now,' Hardie said. Kearby said he was comfortable with analyst expectations that revenues would soar to $15 million next year, from the $4.3 million forecast for this year. He voiced optimism that Liquid could beat out bigger rivals like Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) and AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - news) to become the premier player in the online music market. ``Hopefully we can move faster, and we've got a head start,' Kearby said.