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Technology Stocks : VerticalNet, Inc. [VERT] -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alan Levin who wrote (838)	3/20/2000 12:48:00 PM
From: ivernia	Respond to of 1094

Alan -- Thanks for the link. Ivernia

To: Alan Levin who wrote (838)	3/20/2000 4:13:00 PM
From: Richard Bunker	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1094

This weekend, Barron's published an article entitled "Burning Up: Internet Companies Are Running Out of Cash Fast." The article suggests incorrectly that VerticalNet will run out of cash in two months. There are two major flaws in the analysis, which was conducted by Pegasus Research Int'l. * First, the Barron's analysis overlooks $68 million in highly liquid investments on VerticalNet's balance sheet as of 12/31/99. This $68 million is included under "Short-term investments" and "Long-term investments", whereas the Barron's analysis focused on "Cash & Cash Equivalents" only. * Second, while the article mentions the Microsoft agreement in the text, the burn rate analysis does not include the $100 million in cash that VerticalNet will receive when the MSFT deal closes (expected at the end of this month). * Under Barron's methodology of applying VERT's Q499 cash operating loss ($10.2 MM ) to available cash as of 12/31 ($82.0 MM), VERT would have had about 21 months of cash as of 3/31 and 51 months after the MSFT deal closes. Even this excludes VERT's roughly $70 MM in Ariba stock.