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To: Robert Rose who wrote (108565)	9/19/2000 10:27:06 AM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Rob, Optv is a new economy stock. The the #1 qualification to be classified as a new economy stock is to be losing a ton of money. Btw Do you remember EK Kearney the guy from Seattle who retired on his Qcom investments? Well, the rumor is he ripped of Irwin Jacobs ThinkPad.<vbg> >September 19, 2000 The price of Qualcomm shares gained more than 5 percent in extremely heavy trading yesterday, as the FBI confirmed that it has joined the investigation into the recent theft of Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs' laptop computer. Qualcomm gained $3.56 to close at $69.81 a share in Nasdaq trading of more than 37.8 million shares -- more than double the company's recent daily average. Some attributed the rise to a report issued early yesterday by First Union Securities analyst Mark Roberts, who upgraded his recommendation on the wireless telecommunications company from "buy" to "strong buy." The San Francisco-based analyst set a 12-month price target of $90 for the stock. Roberts attributed Qualcomm's earnings weakness to Korea, which has been called a key market for the next generation of the San Diego-based company's cellular technology. "We think investors should begin aggressively buying the shares because we suspect that there are several good news events ahead for the shares and relatively few potential negative surprises," Roberts said in his report. In a separate, unrelated announcement, Verizon Wireless said yesterday it plans to spend $550 million next year to expand its digital cellular network in the greater Los Angeles area. Verizon's digital network in Los Angeles is based on Qualcomm's proprietary technology. Qualcomm's pop in price broke through some investor uncertainty that descended over the company following news reports that the notebook PC used by Qualcomm's founding chairman and chief executive disappeared Saturday. The IBM ThinkPad, valued at roughly $3,700, vanished just minutes after Jacobs gave a presentation to about 100 journalists in a hotel conference room in Irvine. Irvine police, who took the initial report, said the theft could be anything from an opportunistic heist to an act of industrial espionage. The FBI inquiry, which was initiated at Qualcomm's request, will first determine whether proprietary information was compromised by the theft, said Cheryl Mimura, a spokeswoman for the bureau's Los Angeles office. Qualcomm spokeswoman Christine Trimble said the company is cooperating with the investigation. At the hotel Saturday, Jacobs said his laptop contained "everything," including e-mail dating back years, financial statements and even personal mementos. "It was really weird," said Jacobs, who was visibly unsettled after the theft. The Qualcomm executive had used the laptop to give a Power Point presentation to the audience. He later said he disconnected the notebook PC and turned it off as some journalists came forward to ask additional questions. He turned away from the lectern to speak with them, but he was never more than a few feet away from his PC. "I was getting ready to close it and put it in my case, on a chair nearby," the executive said. Investigators in such a case would first try to determine who was attending the conference and then contact each one, said Don Connors of Primus Systems, a corporate security firm in Carlsbad. Connors said investigators then would assess what Connors called the "bona fides" of the attendees. "I know that not all newspaper people are honest, just as not all security people are honest," Connors said. "You can (also) get people who are posing as hotel staff. This is very easy to accomplish."