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Strategies & Market Trends : Piffer OT - And Other Assorted Nuts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: accountclosed who wrote (28410)	4/14/2000 12:59:00 PM
From: John Pitera	Respond to of 63513

the big knock on Vert was that they were running out of cash, but it looks like they got an infusion from their rich uncle Bill. MSFT has paid for 80,000 virtual storefronts.... does not seem like a smart day to sell VERT unless you have to for margin calls. ---------------------- State of the Web: Lessons from the Cable Resurrection By James J. Cramer 2/6/00 5:06 PM ET Cable got bailed out by the Web. Let's face it. This was one of the great out-of-left field moves we all dream about as investors. An industry that had fallen on hard times, an industry that always had so much potential but couldn't really make money, suddenly stumbled on the big enchilada: the last mile. When we were in the Green Room awaiting the taping of our TV show, our guest, Bob Olstein, told us about how he'd spotted the change. At first he was stumped. He couldn't figure out why Bill Gates was writing a big check to Comcast (CCZ:NYSE - news - boards), a company he didn't think had much going for it. He had pretty much written off these companies and couldn't figure out how they could possibly come back to life. But Gates' largesse meant that the richest man in the world had figured out the utility of the cable companies' infrastructure and simultaneously had figured that the regional Bell companies wouldn't be able to monetize their logical position as co-owners of the last mile. So, who else has Gates been writing checks to of late? How about VerticalNet (VERT:Nasdaq - news - boards)? We sold this stock after the most recent run-up, but I'm looking for an opportunity to get back in. Microsoft (MSFT:Nasdaq - news - boards) makes these investments in order to influence the development of trends. But, as in its choice of Comcast, it sees far into the future of the industries it thinks will be hot. I know that had I bought Comcast when Gates did, I would have made a fortune, even though the stock had run after the purchase. Maybe the same will happen with VerticalNet. I don't think I can afford to miss another one of those moves.