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To: Investor2 who wrote (47307)	7/15/2000 11:19:44 PM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 93625

Stardom Brings Death Threats to Analysts Story Filed: Saturday, July 15, 2000 3:57 PM EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street analysts, who long toiled in anonymity as bean-counters, now are icons of the decade-long bull market and are receiving million-dollar bonuses, heaps of TV time -- and death threats. A Salomon Smith Barney analyst received a death threat after he lowered his rating on semiconductor companies on July 5, CNN's Moneyline program reported Thursday night. The analyst who made the call on the sector, Jonathan Joseph -- who was not specifically named by the TV station -- was not immediately available for comment and the investment bank declined to comment. But a source within Salomon said ``people are really upset,'' by what happened, without being more specific. San Francisco-based Joseph is not the only one. Dan Niles, an analyst at Lehman Brothers, said he has received death threats after downgrading hot tech stocks such as Dell Computer Corp. and Rambus Inc. He said the threats began last February and include an instance where he was harassed at home. ``I've got an unlisted phone number now,'' he said. All of this attention clearly indicates that, for better or for worse, analysts have become the featured performers on the increasingly visible U.S. stock market stage. ``(Analysts) appear on TV or on Web casts to talk to the public, which obviously includes the individual investors,'' said Chuck Hill, director of research for First Call/Thomson Financial, which tracks the estimates of analysts. ``Before, an analyst was more like a consultant to the institutional business.'' The reason behind the rise in analyst profiles is technology, Hill said, as research reports are readily available through outlets such as the Internet for anyone to peruse. Sometimes that technology puts the information in the wrong hands, resulting in frightening scenarios. Niles recalled one instance when an investor sent him an e-mail after he downgraded Dell, claiming the move wiped out his children's college fund money when the stock price fell. The e-mailer threatened Niles with bodily harm if the investor ever made it to the analyst's home town, San Francisco, Niles said. The threatening calls and messages are only after company share prices dip, Niles noted, as people are desperate to find a scapegoat for a poor investment decision. ``If you want to blame somebody, you might as well blame the analyst,'' Niles said. ``I've never gotten a threatening anything when the stock is going up.'' In some cases, it is an analyst's reputation -- rather than his or her life -- that is put in jeopardy. Investment firm Credit Suisse First Boston Wednesday filed a lawsuit against 11 people, alleging the group posted bogus messages on a Yahoo! Inc. message board. The suit charges the individuals with slandering a Credit Suisse analyst and illegally copying the analyst's research. The suit does not charge Yahoo with any wrongdoing and does not reveal the name of the analyst. A Credit Suisse spokesman declined to comment on the situation. The Yahoo finance message board, along with financial Web site RagingBull.com, was the backdrop of another hoax last week when U.S. Bancorp analyst Ashok Kumar was quoted falsely in a bogus story alleging 24 stock brokers had been arrested for securities fraud. ``It's bizarre,'' Kumar told Reuters on July 7. ``This is libel.'' The game has changed, said First Call's Hill, himself a former analyst. ``I was a technology analyst for 20 years and nobody ever heard of me,'' he said with a laugh. Copyright © 2000 Reuters Limited.