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Technology Stocks : AUTOHOME, Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Educator who wrote (17636)	12/7/1999 11:34:00 PM
From: Solid	Respond to of 29970

Ed, Regarding posts today on the many ATHM message boards. More then a few have helped to saute their own hides by adding more emotional smoke to the kitchen. Not quite The Evening News but part of CBS. Never know who is reading. I would have voted they quote your 'dance night' summary. cbs.marketwatch.com On the message boards: Calling all ISP's! AT&T rattles ATHM faithful By Shawn Langlois, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 4:54 PM ET Dec 7, 1999 NewsWatch Join the discussion It seems like only yesterday that the Excite@Home message boards were home to some of the most confident shareholders the cyber-world had to offer. My, how things have changed. Excite@Home (ATHM: news, msgs) did treat investors to a healthy bounce in November, but AT&T (T: news, msgs) threw a wet blanket on the celebration when the company detailed its commitment to opening its "pipes" (currently reserved for ATHM) to other ISP's. Essentially, in just over two years, AT&T's high-speed networks will be fair game to ATHM's competitors. While that timeframe borders on eternity in Internet years, the stock still fell significantly under the weight of the news. See full story. On Raging Bull, investors, like CrDesign, were pulling their hair out: "ATHM is the most pathetic company I have ever owned! I'm not sitting here waiting for that big day anymore. The fundamental future and the technical analysis of ATHM stink! Due to the inherent greed of the cable companies -- they would sooner destroy an idea rather than share and succeed. CABLE IS DEAD! AT&T is going to bleed ATHM slowly but surely." And Mikesm wasn't shy about sharing his opinion either: "AT&T and ATHM are either playing games with our investment or something isn't right between them. I don't like what has happened here and neither does the market.You can defend a stock and their management only so long." Not giving up just yet Was the announcement really that big a deal? IHateBrokers didn't think so: "The ATHM news was not new, and they do have exclusivity until 2002. By that time their position will be dominant. This is another buying opportunity." Cooler heads tried to prevail on The Motley Fool where GF777 saw the selling pressure as an overreaction: "This gives ATHM plenty of time to develop bigger market share by putting an end to the debate over open access while still keeping the exclusive contracts for the next two years. It removes a nagging problem allowing ATHM to focus on growth. The drop in share price today was a knee-jerk to the news before the facts were really understood." Today on CBS MarketWatch Nasdaq ends day at record high Yahoo shares thunder ahead IPO Report: Airnet Communications soars in debut Net stocks snap winning streak Productivity data shows biggest jump in seven years More top stories... CBS MarketWatch Columns Updated: 12/7/99 3:57:12 PM ET Strong it is and buy you must, according to JediStockMaster: "By the time the exclusivity contracts start expiring in 2002, ATHM will have between 6M to 15M customers (a 6x to 15x increase from today's 1 millions subscribers). This 6-15M subscriber base will be a huge head start over other ISP's, and ATHM will receive revenue from other ISP's customers because of the use of its infrastructure. Anyway you look at it, ATHM wins." Not so fast, JSMaster -- Pike51 did some reading between the lines: "I have to give Armstrong credit. He kept me convinced that ATHM had a seat at the table. And yes, nothing has changed. We knew we had the duration of the exclusivity agreement and that's it. The MSPG agreement does not change that contract. But it does change T's financial interest in continuing that contract. MSPG is in their back pocket. T has no interest in waiting 2 years for MSPG dollars to hit their ledger. Armstrong is going to want to unlock those dollars." Although there were a few ATHM diehards standing resolute during the pullback, the vast majority of message board posters spent Tuesday seeking a reason to hold their position. Does this announcement mean the end of the "open access" soap opera? Stay tuned.