Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Non-Tech : USAB - USABancShares.com -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: VeloSpeed who wrote (2066)	9/29/1999 12:26:00 PM
From: Probart	Respond to of 2419

Wednesday September 29, 11:47 am Eastern Time Internet banks to outpace branch banks on profit LONDON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Internet banks can be much more profitable than their conventional rivals provided they achieve a critical mass of customers, a new study revealed on Wednesday. ''The primary factor limiting Internet profits is the decision by most competitors to increase their spending on marketing efforts to acquire new customers,' said Strategic Finance, a quarterly issued by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The study looked in detail at the performance of two leading Internet banking operations and compared them with a broader index of profitability developed by Andersen Consulting. The latter included online brokers and small banks. One of the Internet banks had consistently achieved higher revenues per customer than online brokers and small banks, but it had significantly higher costs per customer. The other Internet bank had lower costs than small banks, but was roughly equal to online brokers. These could be explained by the Internet banks' high marketing spend and the fact that their combined customer base is less than one-tenth of the average number of customers per bank and online broker in the sample, Strategic Finance said. One of the Internet banks increased marketing spend to more than $150 per customer last year from $35 in 1997 and was expected to spend even more this year. Despite the costs, however, both Internet banks made a profit per customer. The online brokerage sample failed to generate profits while small banks made modest profits, the quarterly said. Internet banks are mushrooming in the United States and Britain. U.S. initiatives include net.b@ank (netbank.com), which claims to be the biggest pure Internet bank, and Wingspan bank (WingspanBank.com). In Britain, insurer Prudential's (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: PRU.L) Egg (egg.co.uk) burst into the market last year with competitive interest rates on savings accounts and expects to break even in 2001. Two others, first-e (first-e.com) by Irish-based holding company enba and, most recently, smile.co.uk by the Co-operative Bank (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: CPBB_p.L) , have also launched. -

To: VeloSpeed who wrote (2066)	9/29/1999 12:31:00 PM
From: Probart	Respond to of 2419

Well you are not the only one....thought that 9 was a good point of entry as well. This smells of a big shake out before news. Probart

To: VeloSpeed who wrote (2066)	9/29/1999 4:16:00 PM
From: Tom Borst	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2419

Info on the SPO . . . I just spoke with Sandler O'Neill again; my understanding is Tepper doesn't want to give away the company with the stock price being beaten down so low. They are authorizing 1.4 to 1.5M shares at a slight discount to current market value . . . just to get them through the 4th quarter. They'll raise additional cash when the time and price are better, but as you can see, this is not the best time to do an offering! I spoke to just about everyone there is to speak to at USAB and Sandler O'Neill, based on what I know, I'm buying into the SPO for about $200k and several insiders are also buying into it! I have to confirm my order with Sandler tomorrow morning at 8:30am. That's all I have, if you want more info pick up the phone and call them yourself. Sandler (212) 466-7732 and USAB (215) 569-4200