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Strategies & Market Trends : Cents and Sensibility - Kimberly and Friends' Consortium -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KevinMark who wrote (73309)	2/9/2000 7:51:00 PM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 108040

Didn't steer you wrong on HRBC......Harbinger Corp. said after the closing bell that it will invest $25 million in a new division focused on vertical market portals. Paul Allen's venture capital firm, Vulcan Ventures, plans to invest side by side with Harbinger. Harbinger (HRBC: news, msgs) also recorded fourth-quarter earnings of $2.7 million, or 7 cents a share, matching consensus estimates. Sales rose 16 percent to $42.4 million from $36.5 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Shares closed off 1 1/16 at 23, and moved to 24 on Island. Harbinger Creates Investment Division to Fund Vertical Market Portals Vulcan Ventures Set For Side-By-Side Investments ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 9, 2000-- Harbinger Corporation (NASDAQ:HRBC - news), a worldwide supplier of business-to-business e-commerce software, services and solutions, announced today it is investing $25 million in the creation of a new division focused on capitalizing vertical market portals. Vulcan Ventures, Inc., Paul Allen's venture capital firm and one of the Company's largest and longest standing shareholders, plans to invest side by side with Harbinger as it builds equity stakes in the emerging Internet startups. The online B2B markets bring manufacturers, suppliers and customers together on the Internet, where they can transact business through online catalogs, check inventories, buy and sell merchandise, track and manage shipments, conduct surplus auctions, and conduct other related activities. Harbinger already operates 25 vertical market portals and has taken equity interests in those that address the Company's target industries. GroceryLink.Net is a Harbinger joint venture with Success Systems, Inc. and anchor tenant CROSSMARK, Inc. Current marketplace participants have gross content value in excess of $15 billion and by year-end the vertical market portal estimates handling transactions for 30 percent of all U.S. consumer packaged goods. The pace of business-to-business e-commerce and emerging portal opportunities is accelerating, and appears to be following analyst predictions as industry leaders look to lock up Internet market and mindshare ahead of their competitors. Current estimates show e-commerce reaching $7.3 trillion worldwide by 2004, according to GartnerGroup, with Forrester Research projecting that 72 percent of the growth occurring in four market segments: Automotive, Petro/Chem, Utilities and Electronics. Each are key industries for Harbinger, and the Company expects initial investments from its new division to target the petroleum and automotive industries. ''B2B e-commerce is a market with tremendous business and marketing potential,'' said James M. Travers, Harbinger President and Chief Executive Officer. ''Harbinger has demonstrated a high degree of success in the past year at identifying new vertical market opportunities, and supporting those portals with startup capital, and our harbinger.netSM technology and back-office infrastructure. With the number of opportunities increasing, a separately funded division with its own management, allows us to evaluate and commit to future investments more quickly, which is essential in today's marketplace.'' ''Vulcan Ventures has been a partner with Harbinger for more than six years,'' said William Savoy, Harbinger Board Member and President, Vulcan Ventures, Inc. ''We see B2B e-commerce as a significant growth opportunity and investing along with Harbinger fits perfectly with our intent to identify and fuel high-growth B2B e-commerce opportunities. The new division leverages Harbinger's core competency of building and managing electronic trading communities, while allowing the entrepreneurs to do what they do best - which is building and managing emerging businesses.'' Harbinger expects to invest in a number of portals this year. The company will gain immediate and on-going revenues by providing its back-office infrastructure and harbinger.net technologies to the marketplaces, and expects some may become candidates for Initial Public Offerings.