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Technology Stocks : Net Perceptions, Inc. (NETP) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sofa Kingdom who wrote (2388)	2/6/2000 6:43:00 PM
From: rupert1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2908

Sofa Kingdom: I think you nailed it with your comments about WS finding it a difficult concept to understand. That explains why it is 50-250% less expensive than companies in its sector with similar or worse financial comparisons. Two things will alter this. First, as NETP expands it's offerings to become a one-stop e-marketing solution, WS will understand that it is "like" DoubleClick, EPNY, BVSN etc. Paradoxically, NETP will have more competition for these expanded offerings than it can have for its patented real time personalisation recommendation engine (rtpe). The rtpe is the killer application and the hook. The second thing is that as the quarters mount up and NETP is seen to be a predictable and reliable cash machine, WS will take notice. They still won't understand the subtleties but they will understand the projections. The GUS study has been fully documented and was the feature of a half hour prime time ABC Nightline with Ted Koppel show. If you want to see reruns go to netperceptions.com I would not worry if I were you about the rigour and scientific validity of NETP and its results. The company grew out of the work of scientists at the University of Minnesota. It has been awarded the MIT prize for innovative technology as well as a similar price by The Economist. Its patents are filed. The GUS and all other studies have been validated. Furthermore, it is NETP which has introduced scientific accountability to the issue. It sponsors "ACCESS" which is an independent exchange of information on real time personalistion and has sponsored the first ever Personalisation Summit in San Fransico last November. The event was a sell out even after they expanded the facilities. There is to be another in Boston in April. NETP is clearly understand to be the leader. It has ten times more customers than its nearest competitor. The disparity is growing. With respect to those companies that cannot afford $100,00 -$250,000 (the range of prices of a NETP product), they can still get the rtpe as part of the packages offered by the various partners I listed in my last post. This is much cheaper for them. Also, Lycos, one of NETP's customers, has a Mall in which it hosts a number of companies offering products through e-comemrce. All Lycos tenants in this Mall can access NETP's products through Lycos. It is a service offered by Lycos. NETP benefits by getting an increased volume of clickthroughs from LYcos. This is a model for the future. Furthermore , NETP has announced that this year it will launch an ASP so that smaller companies can access a mainframe to use the NETP product on a licence and clickthrough basis. For NETP the cost of sales through partners is very low because it is born by the partner, NETP gets a royalty as well as percentage of click-throughs. It also gets mind share, market dominance and a foot in the door of all those customers of partners who one day may become direct customers of NETP. It's goal is ubiquity. NETP is an arms dealer. It will sell its product to anyone, does not take sides. The market is astronomical and more than enough for all competitors. I have always believed that NETP is more than likely to be bought out. The most effective of its defences is the large percentage of shares owned by the orignal VC and insiders. But one of those VC - Vulcan Ventures (Paul Allen) has been selling about half of its holdings. NETP does not want to be acquired. It has just acquired KD1 for shares and has hired a big shot from Intel to head up its acquisition programme. If it can grow fast enough it might be able to stave off an acquirer. From an investors point of view an acquisiton for a higher price would hardly be a disaster.