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 : Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCW, PCWKF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (4458)	1/10/2001 4:51:57 AM
From: ms.smartest.person	Respond to of 4541

Merrill Lynch downgrades revenue forecast for China's Internet portals BEIJING, Jan 9 (AFP) - Investment bank Merrill Lynch Tuesday gave a gloomy forecast for China's struggling Internet industry, cutting revenue expectations for the next two years on all four major portals. Merrill's Internet analysts said the online advertising environment in mainland China had "deteriorated more severely than we expected in the last few months," the company's Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific office said in a statement. The analysts cut their forecast for online advertising in China this year to 80 million dollars from an original forecast of 120 million dollars. As a result, the company also lowered revenue forecasts for three of the four major portals - by 25 percent for NetEase, 15 percent for Sina and five percent for Chinadotcom. A month ago, Merrill slashed its revenue projection for the fourth portal Sohu.com by 30 to 40 percent. Merrill Lynch also cut its intermediate and long-term recommendations on NetEase to "accumulate" from "buy" and lowered its long-term rating on Sohu to "neutral" from "accumulate" while maintaining Sohu's intermediate "neutral" rating. For Sina.com and Chinadotcom stocks, however, the bank maintained their earlier recommendation, advising investors it was still wise to "accumulate" in the intermediate term and "buy" for the long-term. All four companies are trading near all-time lows on the Nasdaq. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- english.hk.dailynews.yahoo.com