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Strategies & Market Trends : Cents and Sensibility - Kimberly and Friends' Consortium -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: swisstrader who wrote (16123)	9/21/1999 5:37:00 AM
From: swisstrader	Respond to of 108040

SmartMoney on PPRO: September 20, 1999 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SMARTMONEY.COM: Too Good To B2B True? By CINTRA SCOTT NEW YORK -- Agressive-growth investors are hungry for a new IPO story. Web communities are so last year, and their sagging stock prices show it. E-tailing has a catchy name but rapidly deflating expectations. In preparation for the new IPO season, investment banks - the IPO peddlers - are coining new terms, telling new growth stories and doing everything they can think of to keep investors excited. The latest flavor of the month is called B2B. On Thursday, Goldman Sachs issued a 112-page report and conducted a conference call to spotlight the market for business-to-business sales over the Internet. "While the business-to-consumer e-commerce market has been growing rapidly, we believe that business-to-business (B2B) commerce over the Internet, though nascent today, is poised for rapid acceleration," wrote analyst Rakesh Sood and his team. Goldman Sachs declares that B2B will grow to be a $1.4 trillion industry over the next five years - that's an impressive 68% compound annual growth rate. Business-to-business commerce conducted over the Internet is indeed spreading like a virus right now, because costs are coming down and businesses feel compelled to keep up with competitors going online to do business. Goldman isn't the only big firm talking up the B2B pot of gold; Merrill Lynch did its own table-pounding in the first week of August. (That was the same week Merrill sold the IPO of a B2B investment company called Internet Capital Group (ICGE), which has jumped a stunning 473% in the aftermarket.) Of course, cynics might say B2B is just another empty buzzword being bruited about by investment bankers because it describes what's in their IPO pipeline. But whichever came first - the hype chickens or the IPO eggs - you can bet some hefty profits will be made. The question is: How long can the B2B show last before fickle investors walk out in search of something new? Vitria Technology Although Goldman never mentioned Vitria Technology (VITR) by name (and is not involved with its underwriting), the company's rocketing IPO on Friday seemed to benefit from the B2B attention. At its market debut, shares of this e-commerce software maker more than tripled. Vitria is the first fresh company to come to the market this September - after last week's reheated summer leftovers like Garden.com (GDEN), Luminant (LUMT), PurchasePro.com (PPRO) and NetSilicon (NSIL).