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Technology Stocks : CMGI What is the latest news on this stock? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: polarisnh who wrote (13000)	9/16/1999 7:31:00 PM
From: tang	Respond to of 19700

Steve, many thanks!

To: polarisnh who wrote (13000)	9/17/1999 8:14:00 AM
From: polarisnh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19700

Is Motley Fool a wise investment? By Tom Davey Redherring.com September 16, 1999 Talk about foolish investments: Maveron and the Mayfield Fund are readying $26.5 million for a 15 percent stake in Motley Fool, a company founded on keeping investors informed and giving sensible advice. Indeed, its popular Web site is well positioned to profit from its fast-growing user base -- that is, unless a raging bull heads it off. Following the round, Tom and David Gardner, brothers and Fool founders, will own about 64 percent of the company. Fool employees and America Online (NYSE: AOL), which hosted the service before it moved to the Web in 1997, will own the remaining 21 percent. The Motley Fool has been an online mainstay for amateur investors and others who have used it to trade gossip and seek financial advice since online services rose in popularity several years ago. The company's Web site, Fool.com, has built a following estimated at 843,000 visitors in August, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. That's up 57 percent from 538,000 visitors in May. The average time each user spent on the site during the month more than doubled from fourteen minutes to thirty minutes. With venture funding, the company plans to expand its staff of 190 and increase its advertising to build brand awareness. The Gardners have done very little advertising in the past. Most of the site's growth has come from word-of-mouth referrals, typically among individuals that follow publicly traded technology companies. WANTED: FOOLISH CEO The company also plans to search for a new CEO with big-business experience. "We first and foremost want to bring in someone who is a fool," jokes Dan Levitan, a general partner with Maveron. "But we also want to bring in someone who can scale a large business." Many of the Fool's competitors offer online financial news and investment advice. Most sites, such as TheStreet.com (Nasdaq: TSCM) and MarketWatch.com (Nasdaq: MKTW), compete indirectly by providing breaking news and a few columnists. Those more similar to the Fool make extensive use of message boards. These include Yahoo Finance (Nasdaq: YHOO), Silicon Investor, and Raging Bull. FOOL VS. BULL The Bull is hot on the Fools's heels. Started last October, Raging Bull has already raked in $22 million in venture money from notable investors such as CMGI (Nasdaq: CMGI) and CNet (Nasdaq: CNET). The Bull claims that its focus on message boards rather than traditional editorial content is unique. "We don't have a talking head like a Jim Cramer at TheStreet or Tom at the Motley Fool," snorts the Bull's Jeff Housenbold, vice president of strategic development. The Bull's audience, at last count numbering 276,000 visitors, represents a third of the Fool's following. But the average Bull visitor spends one hour and forty-seven minutes on the site each month -- or more than three times as long as the average Fool visitor, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Mr. Housenbold says that Raging Bull's Web site is tops in holding investors' attention and is seventh overall in "stickiness" compared to Web sites of all categories. "Two of those ahead of us were pornography sites," he adds. The Fool's investors are undaunted. "We think this is a very big space on the Web," says Mr. Levitan. "And people love the Fool." Perhaps, but it's now up to the Fool to follow its own advice and invest wisely.