William,
We were up last night planning my trades for today! DELL has tremendous support below 48, rallied back today everytime it went into the 47's, and Goldman Sachs seems to be a pretty active net buyer which always helps. The direction, as Kemble would tell you, is UP, UP, and AWAY <VBG>
Here's an interesting article from today's TheStreet.com for your reading pleasure.
Best Wishes,
Sam
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Red Herring's Having a Party, and You're Not Invited
By Eric Moskowitz
Senior Writer
9/9/99 8:37 PM ET
Tony Perkins, the chairman and editor-in-chief of technology cheerleader Red Herring, is finding out that political fundraising may not be as easy as it looks.
On Sept. 4, Perkins invited all Red Herring email subscribers, including this reporter, to a fundraising luncheon on Sept. 30 to meet and greet none other than presidential candidate George W. Bush, and sit side by side with the likes of Michael Dell, Cisco (CSCO:Nasdaq) chief John Chambers and former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale.
"If you want to be a really big Fish, you can become a co-host of this event by committing to raise $5,000, which will get you into a special VIP reception with the Governor," wrote Perkins, who was using the forum to launch "Technology and Entrepreneurs for George Bush," a national grass roots campaign he is spearheading.
There was just one catch.
Instead of going to select fat cats, the email was mistakenly sent to 50,000 online subscribers of the Red Eye, an online newsletter that features regular Perkins' missives and Red Herring.com stories.
Since Perkins was in Europe on vacation and there was a long Labor Day weekend, the snafu wasn't recognized until Red Herring CEO Chris Alden returned to his office on Wednesday. Alden stresses the invitation was only supposed to be from Tony to a select list of potential attendees. "We are all disappointed that this mistake ever happened," he says. Perkins, who is still on vacation and unavailable for comment, sent out an email apology to the magazine's online subscribers in a Red Eye email Thursday.
With wealth to spare, Silicon Valley has become a key battleground for funds by both leading presidential contenders. The self-proclaimed father of the Internet, a.k.a. Vice President Al Gore, should be an obvious winner here given the Valley's longtime support of President Clinton. But this year could be the year of GW from Texas.
"Clinton/Gore seemingly had the Valley sewn up, but we're working with such new economy leaders as Microsoft's (MSFT:Nasdaq) COO Bob Herbold and Chambers to push the Republican agenda," says Margita Thompson, the California communications coordinator for the Bush campaign, who said she was unaware of Perkins' emails.
Bush isn't coming out to Redwood City, Calif., for the Sept. 30 luncheon just to shake some hands and raise some cash that he hardly needs at this point. He realizes that these highflying technology companies have only recently learned what old world titans of yesteryear have known all along: Lobbying does pay.
During the first six months of the year, technology moguls gave $843,000 to presidential candidates, more than triple what the industry contributed to President Clinton and former Senator Bob Dole in the 1996 election period, according to The Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that monitors campaign financing.
Bush, the Republican frontrunner, has quietly also leaped ahead of Gore in technology fundraising. He had raked in $380,200 from the computer industry as of June 30, more than twice the $177,950 raised by Gore, according to the Center for Responsive Politics' Holly Bailey.
"Everyone has the perception that Silicon Valley companies have been in the Democrats' corner, but we have seen a lot of Republicans making a real push to get high tech in its corner," she says. Bush also may be gaining respect for having Texas' own Dell Computer (DELL:Nasdaq) in his corner. So far this year, the PC giant has given $17,500 to Bush's campaign, notes Bailey.
Netscape founder Marc Andreessen and John Doerr of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers also have raised the profile by creating the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group Technology Network, or TechNet.The price for admission to Technet's executive council is a minimum of $10,000 annually, while larger firms pay up to $50,000 a year to join.
Members concede that the cost is worth it, considering TechNet's political accomplishments to date, including a successful drive for a federal tax moratorium on Internet commerce and legislation expanding the number of visas for foreign high-tech workers, according to Bailey.
Perkins seems to be off to a less felicitous start. His retraction Thursday morning was much less inviting than the original one emailed out to everyone a week earlier.
"I would like to take this moment to send you all an apology for the email you received Friday. This email was incorrectly identified as a "Red Eye" and sent to the entire database ... As you all know, I have strong political ties to presidential candidate George W. Bush. I apologize for the miscommunication and hope it did not cause any irritation or confusion."
Uh, Tony, one question: Am I still invited?
"I'm afraid not," says Alden.
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