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Technology Stocks : InfoSpace (INSP): Where GNET went! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sarkie who wrote (13147)	10/22/1999 1:45:00 PM
From: Puna	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28311

Yet another downgrade today: <<The following Analyst Recommendations Alert on your Schwab Signature Alert List has been triggered: Go2Net Inc (GNET) - First Call Consensus Recommendation changes by % in last 24 hours. Consensus Downgraded from 1.50000 to 1.70000 (where 1 = Strong Buy; 3 = Hold; 5 = Sell.)>>

To: Sarkie who wrote (13147)	10/24/1999 10:09:00 PM
From: KLP	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 28311

Sarkie and All~ Thought you all would find this branding article interesting... KLP mercurycenter.com Posted at 3:27 p.m. PDT Friday, October 22, 1999 Internet companies spend more and more on branding PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct 22 (Reuters) - From the very beginning, Internet companies have warned investors that they would forego short-term profits in favor of long-term investing to build their businesses and their brands. But after enthusiastically endorsing this strategy for months, some investors are beginning to wonder how much spending is too much. The stocks of two prominent Internet companies fell sharply Friday, one day after they released earnings reports that looked strong on the surface, but predicted spending on sales and marketing would accelerate. Shares of the online technology site Cnet Inc., (CNET.O) which is planning to spend some $40 million on advertising in its fourth quarter, fell $6.19 to $47.38 on Friday. The Internet technology company Inktomi Corp., (INKT.O)which also said it would increase spending on sales and marketing, tumbled $17.44 to $103.06 per share. Although both companies reported robust revenue growth and smaller losses than had been forecast, some investors focused on their expensive budgets. Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget cut his near-term rating on Inktomi to neutral from accumulate, remarking that while the company remains the clear leader in Internet infrastructure, ``it appears to be having to invest more in sales and marketing and product development than we expected to maintain its leadership position and growth rate.' Cnet and Inktomi are by no means the the only companies spending aggressively on marketing. Internet retail giant Amazon.com Inc.(AMZN.O) has repeatedly deferred profits to invest more in its brand, spending $86 million into sales and marketing in the latest quarter. And AltaVista, which is overhauling its bare-bones Internet portal into a flashier, more commercial service, plans to put $120 million into advertising between now and July to build a strong brand identity. As common as the practice has become, the concern meeting more of these large-spending budgets highlights a quandary facing the industry. In the land-grab mentality of online business, name recognition is critical for any company that hopes to be a market leader. But when advertising spending starts to exceed revenues, as it has for some companies, it becomes a very risky gamble. ``It's fine to a certain extent, but when does it stop?' says Darren Chervitz, senior analyst at the Jacob Internet Fund in New York. ``I absolutely understand the important reasons to advertise, but it does worry me. You wonder if companies will have to turn off the spigot at some point.' Cnet, which drew a lot of attention over the summer when it unveiled a $100 million advertising campaign, Thursday said it would accelerate spending, with $40 million allocated for the fourth quarter alone. To put this in perspective, Cnet's third-quarter revenues totaled $28.4 million. Still, many industry analysts said they were more comfortable with Cnet's costly ad campaign than with those of many other dot com companies. ``Cnet had to emerge from the crowd (of online technology sites), and had already proven themselves able to make a profit,' said Bob Walberg, an analyst with Briefing.com in Chicago. ``I'm not sure I can say the same for Amazon. In my opinion Amazon has already succeeded in building a brand. I'm not sure they have to continue spending so much.' Others argued that Amazon, still widely known as an online bookseller, needs to build awareness in the breadth of its business, as a kind of online Wal-Mart. Which raises the question of whether such massive spending on brand is really only a short-term requirement, as many of these companies have maintained. ``Cnet is a company that was making profits (before the new ad campaign), but if you ask the vast majority of people, even those who are tech-savvy, if they know Cnet, maybe they do and maybe they don't,' says Chervitz, who notes brand building often takes longer than companies expect. ``It may pay to try and build an enduring brand name, but it's scary.'