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 : AUTONOMY - AUTN (was AUNMF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: H James Morris who wrote (64)	9/14/2000 4:04:14 AM
From: W D J Moore	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 73

Thread, nice comment from LEX column FT.com Europe's technology industry boasts few companies with genuinely exciting prospects. Autonomy is one of them. Its technology addresses the biggest opportunity created by the new economy: explosive growth in data. The amount of data held by big companies is doubling every year. Most of this information is not structured in a format that conventional software can understand. Autonomy's technology uses some clever maths, based on the likelihood of words appearing in a given context, to understand information however it is structured - on-line, off-line, and even voice. There are countless ways of commercialising this technology. Autonomy has repositioned itself a number of times, confusing investors. Its own portal product and Kenjin, a passive search engine used by Tesco.com, Tiscali and Retevision, are interesting but not that valuable. Autonomy also licenses technology to software developers. It has already signed up 40 companies, including Sybase and Vignette, for revenue-sharing deals. This is the real business opportunity. Autonomy has 90 per cent gross margin and a mammoth potential market. There is the risk of a new competitor emerging. However, Autonomy's technology is so far unique. If it is really embraced by software developers, network economics will provide a further barrier to entry. At more than 90 times sales the company enjoys a stratospheric rating. But so do other companies - for instance in optics - with less chance of hitting the jackpot. Autonomy is expensive and risky. But it might yet turn out to be good value.