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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (84002)	10/6/2000 5:47:43 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Respond to of 132070

Nadine, I don't know enough about them yet to tell you if I would nibble. I am about a third of my way through the research, so bear with me. But how can you hate a co. named Razorfish? <G>

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (84002)	10/10/2000 9:43:07 AM
From: flyboy	Respond to of 132070

Nadine, I noticed 2 companies that you omitted in the sector that are both better values IMO... Look at EPRE with $100M in cash and a 40% ownership of SWBD this company is undervalued and able to get talent based on their cash...The stock is trading at a discount to assets and just went under the marginable level yesterday... CYSV...Another company with a much stronger balance sheet than most of their competition... All things being equal a strong balance sheet offers the ability to recruit talent!!! Check the performance of their competition's stock price: quote.yahoo.com Now here is the point, most of those new companies paid their employees in options...If you were working for options and you saw this happen to your stock what would you do??? I personally would leave, it is not that I am unloyal just that I would want to make more money... Now that EPRE is trading below Cash on hand what is the downside? If EPRE came and offered me a package to leave SAPE, VIAN,...etc. I would bolt post haste! You have already seen the bottom in EPRE but not their competition as today is a classic example...Now people have been reaming Mr. Ferry because he choose not to do a share buyback because he thought that he could get some assets cheap going forward (sounds like a prophet to me)... Remember that EPRE had $189M in cash as of June 30...Lets compare that with say...SAPE they have like $247M in cash and sport a $6.2B yes Billion market cap! Now they did have revenue of $126M and a $15M profit last Q, but if they start to lose employees because their options lose value they will bolt...VIAN just reported that they will be reporting a loss, can that happen at SAPE???Here is their insider info: biz.yahoo.com Just on a cash on hand basis EPRE would be worth $182 a share compared with SAPE...Now, I know that EPRE reported $19M revenue and $1M loss the last Q but the revenue growth was the same in percentage terms...SAPE and VIAN and others have been paying their employees low wages but nice option packages, when the playing field is leveled on days like today Ferry looks pretty bright to me! Look at the insider action at VIAN lately: biz.yahoo.com That said this is my take... The reason that the sector suffered was the drop in the equity markets and rise in interest rates lowered some IT spending...Going forward the markets are poised to explode...The interest rates are done rising and the growth of the internet is not over!!!EPRE will have an opportunity to garner talent and customers going forward on an unparalleled basis going forward...The future is so bright you gotta wear shades! EPRE is obviously my favorite and the loss in the equity value will cost the company about $25M in paper value...EPRE still has $89M in cash allocated to SWBD and that has not changed...Following the Q I figure that cash allotment will still exceed $80M in SWBD and EPRE will have an additional $95M in cash and collared SWCM stock...Trading at the current $110M market cap the value is compelling!

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (84002)	10/10/2000 9:44:15 AM
From: RAT	Respond to of 132070

Nadine, Coming from that industry, I would use caution. Due your DD on these, as many have pre-announced an earnings shortfall for Q3 and continued weakness through Q4. That slowdown and subsequent crushing of stock price can hurt these companies worse than a products based company. In any one of these e-consultancies, the slowdown and results in slower hiring (harder to attract new employees when you are below the IPO price), higher employee losses (even the old world with slower growth but a higher salary and better benefits starts to look good), and the possibility of running out of cash before getting back on their feet. Each of those things impacts the LT growth rate, and therefore the real value of the stock. Finally, with the .com threat squashed by a more picky (and rightly so) investment community, old economy businesses can take more time to decide on what the appropriate internet based inititatives are. Old world consultants like McKinsey and Booz will again become the trusted advisor.