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Technology Stocks : AUTOHOME, Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gpowell who wrote (21299)	4/21/2000 2:55:00 PM
From: M. Frank Greiffenstein	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

ATHM is a lousy content provider, but they do own a nationwide broadband network. And therein lies the problem at the heart of investor's concerns. Is E@H a content provider, a broadband infrastructure play, or both? I don't blame them for being confused because management has always been confused about this, and this confusion in turn was caused by T's well documented hatred of "content". Honestly, is there any serious person who thinks ATHM did not overpay for Blue Mountain Arts? I mean, this company was managed by a hippie couple and a small staff. For the price (was it 550 million?) I think ATHM could have hired a huge staff of content developers for much less than that. But ATHM made the mistake of taking pundits and critics too seriously: "ATHM needs content and needs it now!" Shit, AOL lost Motley Fool and it has no affected them one bit. And don't get me started on the price of Excite... But this is all in the past. It looks like ATHM is once again focused on infrastructure, which is where they should have been the whole time. DocStone

To: gpowell who wrote (21299)	4/21/2000 3:08:00 PM
From: David Nelson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29970

Because competetion at that level is what will be necessary to succeed. Broadband will become a commodity! And because of deregulation, the pie will eventually be sliced up into many tiny little pieces. ATHM has the opportunity to play with the big boys or atrophy as competitors erode their market share, and close their window of opportunity. ATHM has nothing that can't be reproduced except their early lead... and that can be bought! And I can assure you that MSFT and AOL will do away with that advantage in short order. Even Cisco is in the game now with high speed access. I don't want to see ATHM bought or sucked up in some inconsequential merger or acquisition by someone with better business sense. Open your eyes my friend. Time will prove you wrong and no amount of citations from other gearhead sources can change human nature! This argument reminds me of the DOS guys that said Windows will never make it because the mouse will get in the way. By the way, IBMs latest release of DOS 2000 is shipping. Some people just can't see the forest for the trees. Technology in a vacuum is a vacuum tube, get it! And you don't have to be a gearhead to run for cover when the sky is falling! Phone companies will always be phone companies! Cable companies will always be cable companies. So what does spouting drivel about RBOCS and the last mile have to do with people's eyeballs and wallets. This isn't about gears. You are suggesting that speed alone will be the motivating factor in winning the eyeballs of the world. I am stating that speed is relative and that ATHM will squander their franchase if they don't offer more. And that can't be done without money--lots of it, and losses for the forseeable future to outspend Bill and Steve! ATHM has the early lead, but then, so did CP/M, at one time. --Dave