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.

Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony@Pacific who wrote (61048)	10/20/2000 8:14:04 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 122087

Delta Air Lines Renegotiating Warrants With Pricelinecom Washington, Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Delta Air Lines Inc. wants to name its own price for shares of Priceline.com Inc. The Atlanta-based airline already has taken a $100 million charge for losses on its holdings in Priceline.com as shares of the online auctioneer of airline tickets have plunged 92 percent the past year. Now Delta wants to renegotiate the price on warrants to buy 5.5 million Priceline.com shares, it said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The airline also may sell the rest of its stake in the Norwalk, Connecticut-based Internet venture, the filing said. Delta received the warrants -- priced at $56.63 a share -- last year as part of an amended agreement for how Delta, among other carriers, would provide tickets to Priceline.com. The Internet auctioneer is known by its pitch, in television ads featuring actor William Shatner, for bidders to ``Name Your Own Price'' for airline tickets, hotel rooms and other items. Priceline.com's share price, up 30 cents to $5.42 today, makes the warrants essentially worthless until the shares rebound more than tenfold. Delta said in the SEC filing it won't exercise the warrants at current prices. ``Delta is discussing with Priceline a possible amendment of the 1999 warrant that would, among other things, reduce the exercise price and the number of shares of Priceline common stock subject to the 1999 warrant,'' the filing said. Exercised Some Warrants ``Should the market price of Priceline common stock ever exceed the exercise price of the 1999 warrant, Delta may exercise the 1999 warrant to purchase some or all of the shares,'' the filing added. Delta then ``may sell, in the open market or in private transactions, some or all of any shares so purchased.'' Under terms of the 1999 agreement, warrants to buy only 2.75 million shares are exercisable now. The rest can vest as early as Jan. 1, 2001. The airline has in the past sold Priceline.com shares, including some received by exercising warrants it received in a 1998 agreement as well as the 1999 revision, the filing said. The investment generally hasn't fared well for Delta, which said in announcing third-quarter earnings on Tuesday that it wrote off $100 million, net of tax, against income for a decline in its Priceline.com stake. Delta also holds preferred stock convertible into 6 million Priceline.com common shares, as well as 589,831 common shares it owns outright, received as a dividend on the preferred stock, according to the filing. If the airline exercised the vested warrants for 2.75 million shares and converted the preferred it would control 9.3 million shares for a 5.3 percent stake in Priceline.com. ``Delta may sell a substantial portion, and possibly all'' of those holdings, the filing said. The airline's shares, which have fallen 15 percent over the past year, rose 25 cents to $41.69 today. Officials for Delta and Priceline couldn't be reached for comment. Oct/20/2000 19:21 ET For more stories from Bloomberg News, click here. (C) Copyright 2000 Bloomberg L.P.

To: Anthony@Pacific who wrote (61048)	10/20/2000 8:21:33 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 122087

Manhattan Apartment Prices Drop Below $800,000 as Stocks Swoon New York -- The average cost of a Manhattan apartment fell 7.7 percent in the third quarter to drop back below $800,000, in a sign that a slump in stock prices may finally be affecting New York's housing market, according to a new study. The average price fell to $789,225 from $854,704 in the prior quarter, which was the highest ever recorded, according to a report from residential brokerage firm Douglas Elliman, prepared by appraisal firm Miller Samuel Inc. Also as evidence that the New York apartment market may be cooling, the number of sales fell 15 percent from a year ago, and the average time an apartment was on the market before being sold rose 28 percent. The report tracked the sale of 2,089 apartments located between Battery Park City in lower Manhattan and either West 116th Street or East 96th Street. Douglas Elliman is a subsidiary of Insignia Financial Group Inc., one of the largest U.S. property brokers. (Bloomberg News)

To: Anthony@Pacific who wrote (61048)	10/21/2000 10:31:26 AM
From: RockyBalboa	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 122087

Anthony, nice read: siliconinvestor.com ...................... It isn't only the actions of individuals on message boards that raise eyebrows. Analysts at Wall Street firms sometimes issue buy recommendations on stocks at the same time the firm is selling the same stock. On June 5, for instance, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts Jamie Friedman and Thomas Berquist reiterated their rating of FreeMarkets Inc. as a "trading buy," one of three terms Goldman applies to stocks it considers a buy. FreeMarkets shares climbed $4.25 a share to $54.75 the day the report was issued. Just two days later, Goldman filed documents with the SEC indicating that it intended to sell part of its stake in FreeMarkets on or about June 7, when a lock-up barring insider sales of the stock expired. Goldman filed to sell additional FreeMarkets shares July 31, six days after it reiterated its "trading buy" rating. "Investment research and our principal investment activities act independently of each other," says a Goldman spokeswoman. "Each adheres to strict firmwide and business-specific guidelines and prohibitions surrounding market transactions."