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Technology Stocks : RATIONAL SOFTWARE- BUY OR HOLD -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ratlong who wrote (3007)	12/16/1999 9:26:00 PM
From: Randy Ellingson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3115

ratlong- I hear you. But I think as a "safe" play (I also hold MSFT and INTC, and look at those as relatively safe for the longer term), RATL is likely to surprise you by soundly beating the market returns (moreso than MSFT and/or INTC will). Here's some text copied from the Yahoo RATL board. RATL filed an 8K today: Rational invests in new internet company founded by two founders of rational. Following is copied from 8-K form filed. Invests in a new Internet company to accelerate strategy To accelerate and broaden its Internet strategy, Rational has invested in a new Internet company whose business will focus on developing a portal to meet the needs of the global community of Internet software professionals. The new company will also create an electronic marketplace for products and services relating to Internet software development, and create and deploy a comprehensive hosted development service for Internet software development. Rational has acquired an eighty-percent interest in this new company in return for a $50 million investment in preferred stock. Paul Levy, Rational's co-founder and chairman, and Mike Devlin, Rational's co-founder and chief executive officer, will continue in these roles as well as serve as chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the new company. Paul Levy and Mike Devlin are founders of the new company, each with a ten-percent equity interest subject to vesting over a four-year period. It is anticipated that the new company will consider adding strategic investors and, in the future, consider a public offering. Policy regarding "forward looking" statements Statements Statements contained in this press release may include "forward looking" statements relating to financial performance which are subject to risks and uncertainties. The actual future results of the company could differ materially from those projected herein. Certain risks which could cause actual results to differ materially include the need to successfully execute the company's Internet strategy, fluctuations in operating results, dependence on market growth for sophisticated development tools and competition in the market place. For a list of additional risk factors, see recent SEC filings. If I am doing my math properly, Levy and Devlin together put in $12.5M. Let's see where this takes the stock... Randy

To: ratlong who wrote (3007)	12/29/1999 6:36:00 PM
From: Hans-Erik Eriksson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3115

ratlong, As always I think we fundamentally agree. Rational is now in a position where: 1. They are taking their basic business model and growing it by market growth. 2. Expanding it geographically, taking it into new countries and territories. 3. Spreading their fundamental and correct ideas on modeling and process, which in turn sells their tools. The potential for unexpected surprises would be found in: 1. The new Internet sales company (official but not yet launched yet) which I hear things good about - Grady Booch being launched as the companys technical mentor, and a senior VP experienced in training as the CEO of the company. The fact that they haven't rushed this out too quickly is a positive - that could mean it is really good once released. The challenge is of course to have it accepted as a "non-rational" sales site, but in due time to make money of it. 2. New products that are truly "e-business, e-learning, e-whatever" oriented -- their current product portfolio is great and will expand with several upgrades - but with their financial and technical strength you would hope they got stuff cooking in their labs. To be truly accepted as a "e-business" supplier they need a killer app. It shouldn't really be that hard - how about a "Rose for Modeling Web Applications" which could integrate with Dreamweaver and a couple of the transaction backend solutions ? Ratlong, I agree the future winners are in b2b e-commerce and telecom (mobile?) -- must admit that I'm not familiar with all the tickers you posted. But the true winners in that market is probably not even on the board yet. Not wanting to insult anyone in the US, but I think the real stock winners in that area is to be found in Europe now (in terms of technology and market progress / stock price). So overall I'm moving out of NASDAQ. I am still long in my basic RATL position, but I don't expect any sensational changes in price anytime soon (without a overall downturn market, which could happen anytime soon). Best & A happy new millenium to all, /Hans-Erik