Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Net Perceptions, Inc. (NETP) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Smear_campaign who wrote (2573)	7/28/2000 6:13:11 PM
From: rupert1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2908

smear campaign: Interesting but a bit confusing. If Ellison is now saying that a company selling software should (a) host its own ASP and (b)sell through third party ASP's, then I think we can say NETP is doing that. NETP's own ASP is in the former KD1 office in Texas. I have not kept count, but my impression is that NETP has signed deals with about three third-party ASP's, including Organic this week. I wonder why the article said that ASP might become like dot.coms? I cannot see the analogy. If it means that so much business software will be sold on ASPs that the price of software will drop, then all the more reason to value a company which has something special about its software, something protected by patent. I am impressed by the ASP business model. A company can ship out its software applications quickly and in high volume at low cost, all over the world. There is renewable revenue, too, from the "rental", from the servicing and the updates. Customers of the ASP service are sitting ducks for new products and can also be influenced to upgrade to non-ASP custom-made installations. As for an ORCL-NETP nexus! As you know NETP is one of the founding partners of ORCL's new e-commerce portal offerings (and as you pointed out, Ellison has shown a special appreciation of NETP, nominating it for the Smithsonian Prize). I understand that ORCL have been doing some early or prototpye selling and their full service was to come on stream in the summer. I assume that NETP did not get much business from the early trials because there was no mention of that in the CC. Will ORCL be re-selling the NETP ASP products? Will it sell them from NETP's own ASP - and is this how NETP could be one of the 7 ASP partners? I suppose that could be an interpretation of the article, but its not entirely consistent with it. The article seems to suggest that ORCL will be selling its own proprietary software on third-party ASPs. I don't know what the capacity of the NETP ASP is, but I would doubt NETP was in the business of renting out mainframe space for competitive products. In general, I like the ORCL-NETP relationship so far. It adds a bit of sizzle. I would think ORCL is going to have thousands of customers and it would be nice if NETP could be the personalisation network of choice for a chunk of them. As for rumours of ORCL buying out NETP - ORCL is famous for not buying but for writing its own codes. But since Larry has seen and appreciated the NETP technology and the lead it has, and made this strategic thrust into enabling internet e-commerce, perhaps NETP's very cheap price (I am talking $50+) would persuade him that it might be worth the petty cash. Ideally, he would not take it over - but buy shares for $200 million and enter into a strategic relationship with NETP.