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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: johnd who wrote (44359)	5/5/2000 12:38:00 PM
From: johnd	Respond to of 74651

Mary Meeker likes MSFT to trade at 69 - 15/16 for today. Just kidding. Mary's prediction of 60s hasn't come true. Also Rick Sherlund's 65 is not touched either. I like it when these analysts are wrong.

To: johnd who wrote (44359)	5/5/2000 7:06:00 PM
From: Insitu	Respond to of 74651

johnd--Let me preface my remarks by saying that I studied antitrust law 20+ years ago, but I'm not an antitrust lawyer now. I'm a business lawyer. But here goes anyway. If the Court of Appeals throws out the judge's finding of monopoly power, then the private plaintiffs start over at square one. I don't think that will happen. The finding of monopoly power here is the clearest part of the case. That is why MSFT should have settled this case before the findings of fact were issued. A settlement now will probably leave the findings intact. As I see it, the private cases would only be thrown out, if the judges in those cases find no monopoly (which isn't an option anymore) or if the judges find no "abuses" of monopoly power. The latter could happen in some cases, but not many. The remedy is the part that is unclear to me. If anything is thrown out, it might be the remedy, assuming that TPJ even agrees with the DOJ. Even with a breakup though, this is a good stock long term. I'm not a short term holder or I might sell, but its a keeper long term even with a breakup. My biggest worries are the private lawsuits and the "brain drain" as the talented people leave after seeing that MSFT isn't the powerful goliath it once was. The new options were very helpful in stemming the tide, but dilutive to us, of course.