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To: Eric Wells who wrote (81764)	10/25/1999 9:36:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Lycos offers broadest Web comparison shopping yet (Embargoed for Monday newspaper editions; hold for release to Internet/fin'l screens until 0000 EDT/0400 GMT Monday) By Eric Auchard NEW YORK, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Lycos Inc. <LCOS.O> said it will unveil on Monday the first site from a major Internet network or search engine to offer side-by-side comparison shopping, breaking the taboo on a service that has existed in niches for years but was slow to catch on due to retailer resistance. Lycos, the fourth most popular U.S. Web destination, said its new LYCOShop (http://www.shop.lycos.com) allows consumers to research products, consult with fellow customers on their options and make purchases from multiple vendors in one place. Many retailers fear such comparisons can slice into profit margins. "This comparison-shopping engine gives you the entire Web," Lycos Executive Vice President Ron Sege said in an interview before the site introduction. "We are taking e-commerce in a direction we believe is more value-based," he added. Lycos is seeking to reinvigorate its shopping strategy after the setback it received last May, with the collapse of its proposed merger with USA Networks Inc.<USAI.O>, owner of Home Shopping Network. The combination would have been a potentially potent, though untested merger of television and Web commerce. "We are getting into the shopping business in a much bigger way than we have before," Sege said of the new shopping push. LYCOShop has assembled more than 1,000 stores such as Gap Inc. <GPS.N>, Barnes & Noble Inc. <BKS.N> and Macy's, a unit of Federated Department Stores Inc. <FD.N>, and combined these retail outlets with online auctions and classified ads. By contrast, the online shopping sections of most major Web networks, including America Online Inc. <AOL.N>, Yahoo! Inc. <YHOO.O>, and ExciteAtHome Corp. <ATHM.O> now offer customers the cyberspace equivalent of shopping malls, requiring shoppers to click from site to site to compare prices for the same item. This protects the retail world's status quo by making the consumer do the leg-work in order to find the best value, artificially keeping prices high and offering little advantage over traditional store-to-store shopping. "As time goes on, the retail model is going to break down and its (e-commerce) is all going to take place in some form of auction," Sege said of how consumers may benefit from real-time price changes instead of buying from static price lists. The introduction of LYCOShop by the Waltham, Mass.-based company is timed to capitalize on the coming holiday shopping season -- and the consumer buying spree, estimated at $6 billion, expected to take place online before the end of the year. Initially, the site will aim to reach the more than 25 million registered Lycos users, along with newcomers. A company executive said that 40 percent, or about 12 million, of the users of its Web search system are looking to buy something. "This holiday season, we will be the only portal offering a value-based shopping engine," Jeffrey Bennett, general manager of electronic commerce for Lycos said before the LYCOShop announcement. Merchants who choose to participate in comparison shopping can enter their products directly into the Lycos comparison shopping database. Those who choose otherwise may lose out on a large potential audience, Lycos officials said. Lycos has partnered with several smaller Internet companies to provide key features for LYCOShop, including Frictionless Commerce Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., which supplied the value-based comparison shopping technology. Lycos officials said they had taken a minority equity stake in Frictionless amounting to between 10 percent and 20 percent of the company. The site also relies the Web-based product review system from Epinions.com, which uses write-ups from professionals as well as consumers. Epinions is working exclusively with Lycos this...

To: Eric Wells who wrote (81764)	10/27/1999 8:27:00 PM
From: GST	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

Eric -- the more I look into the underlying theory of options, and the role of risk in seeking potentially high but uncertain returns, the more I become convinced that net stocks are valued as options and not as stocks have been in the past -- at least not the ones with more predictable prospects. I think this explains a lot of the 'valuation' issues -- i.e. why net stocks have such oddly high valuations. But if the potential returns are seen to become more limited, the option drops dramatically in value -- these indeed supremely risky, which is why so many advise owning a bunch of them rather than just a few. Perhaps my concern with net stocks has been somewhat misplaced. As options, these investments make sense -- if you undersatnad and can manage the risks. My lingering concern -- the one I blat on and on and on about -- is with overall market valuation, which is why I so often refer to things going on beyond the net stocks. But I cannot really say for sure how I think net stocks would perform if the whole market takes a dive. My assumption has always been that they would feel the pain far worse than others -- and I still think that is true. BTW -- I am heavily net short and developed a migraine today when the market did an end of day rally. Later