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To: $Mogul who wrote (59129)	9/1/1999 5:44:00 PM
From: kendall harmon	Respond to of 120523

LGND, mentioned to the thread this morning, has important news after the bell biz.yahoo.com

To: $Mogul who wrote (59129)	9/1/1999 5:55:00 PM
From: Ellen	Respond to of 120523

biz.yahoo.com Monday August 2, 7:43 pm Eastern Time HomeStore IPO prospects seen hurt by lawsuit By Kristin Roberts NEW YORK, Aug 2 (Reuters) - A $300 million lawsuit by real estate franchiser Cendant Corp., (NYSE:CD - news) has hurt the prospects for this week's planned initial public offering of stock by Web site operator HomeStore.com Inc., (Nasdaq:HOMS - news) analysts said Monday. ``I don't expect much out of this,' Irv DeGraw, research director at WorldFinanceNet.com, said of the HomeStore.com Inc. IPO, planned for Wednesday. ``That lawsuit from Cendant, I would expect, is going to muck up the works.' Homestore.com, tentatively set to price its initial public offering Wednesday, was hit with a $300 million suit filed last week by Cendant, which owns names like Coldwell Banker and Century 21 real estate brokerages. Cendant claimed it signed a deal giving Homestore.com access to its real estate listings in exchange for a fee and a letter of intent to give Cendant an equity stake. Cendant never received that stake. A Homestore spokesman, reached last week, would not comment on why the equity was not issued, but said the company believes Cendant's charges are without merit, and planned to defend itself vigorously. The spokesman would not comment on how the suit might affect the IPO. As of last week, Cendant had not decided whether to seek an injunction against Homestore.Com, a spokesman said. Analysts predicted the lawsuit would hurt the upside potential of Homestore's shares. ``It's going to be hard for them to dominate the market with a conflict like that going on,' Francis Gaskins, editor of IPO Desktop, said about HomeStore. Gaskins noted that HomeStore's prospectus shows that the Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based company has yet to post a profit since opening shop in 1993 under a different name. Revenues have fallen from $1.4 million in fiscal 1996 to zero in 1998. Its home and apartment listings are free to users because the company should generate revenue from advertisers on its Web sites and fees from brokers, home builders and agents, it said. ``Basically, an IPO that is going to be coming public with a $670 million market cap, losses at the rate of $113 million a quarter and with a conflict going with Century 21 and Coldwell Banker is not a good deal,' Gaskins said. HomeStore, which provides real estate listings and financing information on a family of Web sites, hopes to raise $7 million, offering shares in the range of $8-$10 each through lead underwriter Morgan Stanley. Analysts project that shares may jump on the first day of trade to between $30-$50, but then fall steeply off that high. Beyond that, IPO watchers are divided on whether HomeStore's ``dot-com' characteristics can push its stock price beyond the low ceiling limiting traditional real estate companies. Tom Taulli, an analyst at Edgar Online, said HomeStore may be a good long-term investment because of its exclusive operating agreements with the National Association of Realtors. ``They have a lock on (that relationship) so it's hard for anyone else to compete,' he said. ``Housing is a big part of GNP and being a first mover in the area could be very hot.' HomeStore runs four sites including Realtor.com, HomeBuilder.com, SpringStreet.com and CommercialSource.com. It has an operating partnership with the Realtors association and the National Association of Home Builders. After the public offering, the Realtor association will have a 6.8 percent stake in HomeStore. The association names one member to HomeStore's board and receives royalty payments from the company based on Web site revenues.