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Technology Stocks : Internet Capital Group Inc. (ICGE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LLCoolG who wrote (701)	10/25/1999 12:29:00 PM
From: William F. Wager, Jr.	Respond to of 4187

Safeguard Plans Six More IPOs For Next Year --- Encouraged by Successes, Web-Oriented Firm Looks Overseas, Too ---- By Dinah Wisenberg Brin Dow Jones Newswires PHILADELPHIA -- Safeguard Scientifics Inc., savoring the successful third-quarter initial public offerings of two partner companies, hopes to bring six more businesses public next year, company officials said. The Internet-oriented holding company, already known for nurturing young enterprises, also is looking to expand its activities into businesses' earlier incubator stage, Safeguard officials said. Safeguard is considering overseas-investment opportunities too, its chief executive said. Executives of the Wayne, Pa., company made their comments last week after announcing third-quarter results that analysts viewed as signs of Safeguard's continuing good performance. Citing robust post-IPO performance at Internet Capital Group Inc. and US Interactive Inc., Safeguard announced earnings of $9.3 million, or 26 cents a diluted share. While the results beat a First Call/Thomson Financial consensus estimate of 16 cents a share, the company reminded analysts that Safeguard stopped giving earnings guidance this year and considers earnings per share irrelevant to their business. Net income for the third quarter of 1998, $59.2 million, or $1.71 a diluted share, included a net gain of $78.6 million related to the merger of former partner company Coherent Communications with Tellabs Inc. "We've never been in such a strong financial position as we are now," Chief Financial Officer Michael W. Miles told analysts, placing the value of Safeguard's public holdings at $2.5 billion. Its holdings in Internet Capital Group account for about two-thirds of that, which officials said is no cause for concern. Through its new directed share subscription programs, more than 40,000 Safeguard shareholders participated in the Internet Capital and US Interactive IPOs. (Previously, Safeguard shareholders could invest in IPOs through another procedure. The new program offers a smaller stake but, Safeguard says, will allow the company to bring more businesses public.) The programs have created about $260 million in value to participating Safeguard shareholders, the company said. Internet Capital, offered at $12 a share, recently traded at more than $100, while US Interactive, offered at $10, recently traded around $18.50. Safeguard shareholders subscribed to 91% of the shares distributed in the Internet Capital directed-share program and to 79% of the available US Interactive shares. "We think those are incredible numbers," Safeguard Chairman and Chief Executive Warren Musser said. Safeguard has invested $100 million in nine new private partner companies it added this year, and $50 million in existing partnership companies, Mr. Musser told analysts. Between Safeguard and the partners based on its campus -- Internet Capital Group and eight venture funds -- the holding company has added 60 mostly Internet-focused partners this year, Mr. Musser said. "This takes our total to over 200 flourishing small companies," he said. Safeguard recently added e-commerce companies iMedium Inc., RealTIME Media Inc. and Opus360 to its portfolio. Safeguard is looking at offshore investment opportunities, Mr. Musser said. "ICG [Internet Capital] will have an announcement along those lines somewhere in the near future," and Safeguard itself is looking into opportunities in Europe, Asia and South America, he said. "We're taking steps to be involved in all those areas without at the same time diluting the focus that keeps us so busy here in the U.S.," Mr. Musser said. Officials said the company also is looking at different ways to move into the incubator stage of company development. That could mean starting a company from scratch and finding someone to run it, or finding one or two people with a good idea and getting in on the ground floor, Mr. Miles said. "You get there before the other people start finding them," Mr. Miles said. That way, he explained, Safeguard can get proprietary ideas to the market first and take a stronger stake in emerging companies. Safeguard aims to take six companies public each year, including next year, Mr. Miles said. It hopes to file registration papers this year for one company after the planned early November public offering of Pac-West Telecomm. It still plans to offer investors a chance to participate through the directed share subscription program, he said. "It looks to me like the pipeline of IPOs over the next six months, even over the next year, looks pretty strong," analyst Joseph Garner of Emerald Research said. The third-quarter results show "just continued good performance from Safeguard," he said. Analyst Bennett Notman of First Union Securities agreed, saying Safeguard's real value is driven by its interest in its public and private partner companies, not earnings numbers. "You judge it by its ability to bring private companies public, and it's done a great job this year," Mr. Notman said. --Bill

To: LLCoolG who wrote (701)	10/25/1999 10:08:00 PM
From: BEEF JERKEY	Respond to of 4187

Greetings ll: I was quoting what an analyst had said. Personally I would not say that a rate hike is "cirtain". He made some valid points to think about though. Greendork has a number of things to consider regarding a rate hike. We know that speculative excess is a high priority as is any inflationary pressures. The dollar has been awfully weak lately too. If the markets continue to ignore his words and the bond and the dollar and close strong into the FOMC meeting don't be surprised if the Markets get slammed with a rate hike Y2K or not because there is enough reason to raise rates and AG may be just pissed enough and is legitimately concerned. Y2K must be a concern of AG's but also carry a number of negatives for the markets. Mutual funds are going to have to raise cash and as noted by IBM the spending by business to get ready for Y2K may now create a lull for the next couple of quarters. The co I work for replaced every computer no matter how mundane the task it was used for even if the only issue was that the bios couldn't handle the leap year but that was all done by June. LL I cirtainly don't agree with your point of view that indexs have already sold off enough. I key off the NDX.X and it's doubled since last year. The DOT.X/IIX.X are pretty much at their all time highs as well if you exclude the three days at the begining of April. I also think that a DOW close below 10,000 will have an effect on all stocks. We're only 300 or so points away from that right now so its not totally out of the question. I do not see where we have convincingly broken out to the upside on any index so direction right now is still a flip of the coin. I may just be trying to play the devils advocate on this thread but I think that my overall point is that I remain very sceptical about the valuation of this co. It does have 24 employees apparently all deal makers. But I do have have to wonder who makes the coffee does the secretarial duties and sweeps the floors? Just because a couple of guys are smart enough to take a co public make a ton of dough get together with their rich pals to sing Jumping Jack Flash and play golf dosen't neccessarily mean it should have a market cap equal to Zerox. Susan: I made an assumption based on my experience with other stocks. I admit I may been wrong on this and I certainly wasn't trying to deliberately mislead. I see you've identified my short bias but I was in fact long Friday. I was also pissed at how fast they dropped the price on Fri. afternoon and I've seen them do that a ton on this stock hence the negative tone to my message. I maintain however that the Internets go down too and that this may be a time to keep this in mind cause thier about as high as they have ever been right now. Right now ICGE is heading up. After that it will likely head down and then likely up and then down again ect. Which ever way it goes I'll try to be boxed or in cash at the end of the day when I trade. I think you'll agree that there is considerably more risk in this stock here at these prices than there was at its offering price two and a half months ago. I wouldn't be suprised if it hit $150 but I also wouldn't be surprised if it prints $50 at some point in the not too distant future either cause when the indexs drop everbody heads for the door at once. Really with the I-nuts who the hell knows?