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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (10632)11/18/1999 7:58:00 PM
From: Uncle Frank  Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 54805
 
Malcolm, the gmst software isn't a passive look up table. It allows the users of cable or satellite tv to sort the hundreds of channels they have by area of interest, and also to program their tv or vcr to play/record the programs they select by the push of a button. Also, it will soon begin carrying advertising banners, similar to internet portals, which will create a huge revenue stream in which they will share.

This summary hasn't done the topic justice. I suggest you locate NY Stew's profile and read every post he has made regarding gmst. He is our a certified expert on gmst.

uf



To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (10632)11/18/1999 9:54:00 PM
From: jerryriti  Respond to of 54805
 
>Value line said if TV and the internet fuse then GMST won't be worth much>

I may be giving Value Line too much credit but their statement seems so outlandish that I have tried to decipher what they may mean.
Clearly, Gemstar is the instrument of choice to manage the interaction of TV and the Internet so we all await the convergence of TV and Internet! I am not familiar with ValueLine's summation and I assume that they may mean that if the migration goes from TV to the Internet, i.e., the world decides to view their TV programs on their PCs, then perhaps Value Line is correct. However,if you believe that there will be a convergence of TV & Internet and the viewing station will be one's TV(big screen of course)then GMST has the technolgy of choice. What they will do on the backend, i.e., advertising and E-commerce is almost impossible to anticipate but it will dwarf the upfront and licensing fees. Since anything that facilitates the movement from PC to TV will accrue to GMST's benefit, I am guessing that Value Line is suggesting their is a danger in a reverse migration. Just trying to make some sense out of Value Line's comment! One could of course wait things out a bit to determine if GMST's platform will be accepted by the public but the roots of a paradigm shift seem to be taking hold! Long and strong albeit possibly early on GMST and doing a little minor league arbitrage with TVGIA!



To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (10632)11/18/1999 11:13:00 PM
From: Mike Buckley  Respond to of 54805
 
Malcolm,

I think it's wonderful that you might disagree with me about the opportunity for Gemstar. But I've just gotta ask a question: Have you read the company's 10K?

--Mike Buckley



To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (10632)11/19/1999 3:07:00 AM
From: Dr. Id  Respond to of 54805
 
Uncle Frank, I'm sorry to be a pest but I still don't get the reason for buying GMST. It's all because I don't have a TV

That's okay. I own QCOM and I don't have a cell phone! :-)

Jeff



To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (10632)11/19/1999 8:24:00 AM
From: NY Stew  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 54805
 
Malcom,

Value Line said if TV and the internet fuse then GMST won't be worth so much. It seems to me technically no problem to fuse them. You could have an active component,internet and a passive component, TV, kind of push programming. What does our group know that Value Line doesn't know?

Gemstar's technology is and will continue to be incorporated into every Window's operating system post Win95. MS paid Gemstar $45M upfront and splits the recurring revenues. This hasn't been a large market for Gemstar to date as users have been relatively slow to upgrade with tuner cards activating the technology.

In my view it doesn't really matter whether it's a TV/PC or a PC/TV. Gemstar's technology is needed for the convergence of such. Microsoft is locked into Gemstar for the next two decades (17-22 years? Stephens has used both numbers). Every MS guide is subject to the licensing terms on any platform. You can review the contract filed 1/12/98.

Separately, Gemstar and TV Guide each have agreements with AOL. The Gemstar agreement, of which I am more familiar, is long term and exclusive. It calls for an upfront payment (amount not disclosed), monthly subscription payments between $5-$10 per annum and the sharing of recurring revenues.

Regards
Stew