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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Apollo who wrote (25569)	5/30/2000 1:46:00 PM
From: Crazy Canuck	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 54805

This is my first post to your thread, however I have been reading it for awhile now. I would like to introduce my selection for a company that I believe fits into the Prince classification. The current King is AskJeeves and my nomination for Prince classification is Net Shepherd (WEB:CDNX) which is the parent company of the privately held Answers.com. Why I feel that this company warrants receiving a Prince classification, is that this morning Answers.com announced that they have just signed a contract with a division of GE, and they will be extending their services deeper into that company through a master services agreement. Message 13797410 From Answers.com's website . . . Answers.com was founded by idealab! in 1996 to provide real-time, expert answers to consumer questions on any topic. This approach required a unique blend of database technology and human expert support. In 1999, Net Shepherd, Inc. acquired and re-launched Answers.com to focus on the business-to-business market. Today, Answers.com develops, markets and supports Web-enabled customer interaction. Our goal is to help businesses manage their customer service inquiry volume efficiently while maximizing overall customer satisfaction and reducing costs. Through our advanced question and answer technology, Answers.com provides the best tools for online customer service support. Simply put, it allows your customers to quickly find real answers to their questions '24 hours a day, seven days a week' right from the convenience of your company's Web site. Aside from Answers.com, Net Shepherd owns three other subsidiary companies that they are spinning off to IPO over the next while. ktopia (www.ktopia.com), and ClickChoice.com (www.clickchoice.com). The Chairman of the Board of Net Shepherd (and owner of 51% of the company) is Jan Baan. Mr. Baan started and built Baan Software into a multi-billion dollar company and left the company two years ago to start a venture capital / operating company (known as Vanenburg Group - vanenburg.com). Mr. Baan, and the board of directors of Net Shepherd have stated that they are in the process of researching ways in which shareholders of Net Shepherd will will able to participate in Pre-IPO shares of each of the companies that they plan to spin off onto NASDAQ. The first of which will be Answers.com. answers.com Net Shepherd's technology enables their distributed Task Force network of 2,000 on-line responders to provide low cost and efficient responses to business queries. GE put Answers.com through a three month demonstration trial to prove that they could deliver what they promised. From my perspective, GE would not jeopardize their customer service if they did not feel that this company had the ability to deliver the goods. From the announcement today, it is obvious that the demonstration went well. Here is a link to just how big GE is. Message 13797043 As mentioned earlier, the current KING or Market leader is AskJeeves. The question should be asked as to why GE chose Answers.com and not the current King in this field. Net Shepherd is currently trading at a price of $3.05(CDN) which is approximately $2.01(US). netshepherd.com I have been following this company for over a year now, and I have been waiting for the time when I can finally post on this thread. Thank you for reading this. Crazy Canuck

To: Apollo who wrote (25569)	5/31/2000 6:22:00 AM
From: gdichaz	Respond to of 54805

Apollo: Re Geoff Moore and JDS Uniphase "category leader". What is particularly interesting to me in Geoff's suggesting that Qualcomm and JDS Uniphase are category leaders (and mentioning the word gorilla) is the concept that wireless and fiberoptics are places to look for rapid growth. As some of you know, that is my area of concentration. BTW Since JDSU is the One King (and Qualcomm the One Gorilla) in my One, One, One Game, I have something of a vested interest in JDSU being a King. It is the strongest king I have found, and SDLI is the strongest prince. That is because of the technology where Qualcomm and JDSU are "category leaders" as well as the strengths of the companies themselves. (SDLI is not a category leader in the sense of being #1 but it is a strong and vibrant #2) On fiberoptics as a "category" in Geoff's term, note this: "Deutsche Banc Alex.Brown's Raj Srikanth Rolls Out Coverageof The Optical Networking Sector NEW YORK, May 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Raj Srikanth, Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown's recent addition to its technology research team, today rolled out coverage in the optical networking industry with the initiation of JDS Uniphase Corporation (JDSU -- $83.50), Ciena Corporation (CIEN -- $99.75), SDLI Inc. (SDLI -- $175.31), and E-TEK Dynamics, Inc. (ETEK -- $176.06). JDS Uniphase and SDLI both were initiated with STRONG BUY ratings, while CIENA and E-Tek shares were given BUY ratings. The investment strategy proposed by Srikanth includes acquiring a basket of early public leaders in this sector with careful monitoring of new private companies. He also emphasizes that optical networking must be a core holding in a strong investment portfolio. Srikanth asserts that the optical networking industry is the future of the communications market based on the following key factors: -- The move to optical networking will be very rapid and faster than expected. -- The demand for bandwidth is exploding due to the growth of public Internet/corporate data networks, competition and deregulation. This increasing demand will lead to the "opticalization" of the network. -- Optical components technology is rapidly driving the advancement of optical networking. System vendors will buy integrated modules to solve architectural demands. -- Systems level architecture is assuming increased importance as intelligent optical switch vendors move to dominate the core of this new network. -- The demand/supply imbalance for optical components is projected to continue through 2003. Raj Srikanth joins senior analysts, Brian Modoff (wireless equipment), Tom Bain (communications semiconductors), George Notter (telecommunications equipment) and Jim Wade (data networking and communications infrastructure) to complete the Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown communications technology research team. Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown identifies the U.S. investment banking activities of DB Alex. Brown LLC and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., which are indirect subsidiaries of Deutsche Bank AG. With over $869 billion in assets as of September 30, 1999 and approximately 90,000 employees, Deutsche Bank offers its clients unparalleled financial services throughout the world. It ranks among the leaders in asset management, capital markets, corporate finance, custody, cash management and private banking. Deutsche Bank is divided into five major business units: Global Corporates and Institutions, Global Technology and Services, Asset Management, Corporates and Real Estates and Private and Retail Banking. Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. maintains a net primary market in the common stock of CIENA Corporation, E-Tek Dynamics, Inc., JDS Uniphase Corporation and SDLI, Inc. Best. Cha2