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Technology Stocks : Ticketmaster-Citysearch (TMCS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jk28 who wrote (771)	12/3/1999 10:32:00 PM
From: bundashus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 803

USA Networks (Barry Diller) invest $40million in TMCS TMCS SEES SUPPORT FROM USA TMCS received an additional $40 million investment from USA Networks through the purchase of 1.3 million class B common shares, increasing its ownership to approximately 52% from 51%. The investment raises TMCS's cash balance to $93 million from $68 million at the end of the third quarter, which we believe should see the company through 2000 as it continues to invest for the future. We have been surprised with the range of opinions on the merits of having USA as a majority holder, with some investors viewing Barry Diller's involvement negatively. We agree with the majority of voices on this issue, namely that Mr. Diller's involvement is a significant positive, possibly opening doors and offering insight otherwise unavailable. We believe the development of TMCS as an independent local eCommerce powerhouse is a strategic priority for Diller and USA. The USA Networks investment comes on the heels of the re-launch of the ticketmaster.com Web site, which offers users a friendlier user interface, more robust navigation, deeper content and improved merchandising features, allowing users the ability to purchase merchandise related to their browsing or ticket-purchasing behavior. We believe that the timely re-launch of the ticketmaster.com Web site could help TMCS capture a large share of the holiday ticketing dollars spent online with even further long-term benefits. Traffic growth appears strong, with early reports from turning on the Microsoft Network local channel yielding very high growth in traffic on some peak days. We continue to believe the company will change its name sometime soon, possibly back to CitySearch. We believe TMCS stock can quickly move back to old highs near $80 as investor perceptions shift from viewing the company as a local content site to viewing it as a local eCommerce powerhouse. We put it at the top of our list of small- to mid-cap stocks to buy. Get Research \| Return to Top