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Technology Stocks : InfoSpace (INSP): Where GNET went! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bosco who wrote (25281)	2/21/2001 9:21:31 AM
From: The O	Respond to of 28311

InfoSpace Hits Reset Button Content company cuts jobs, refocuses for 2001 By Karen Brown from the February 19, 2001 issue of Broadband Week After flying high in 2000 with record earnings and the acquisition of online portal Go2Net.com for an estimated $1.5 billion, InfoSpace Inc. is girding for cooler market times in 2001. A major player providing content and services in the wireless and broadband services realm--ranging from news and e-mail to integrated online calendars for handheld devices--the Bellevue, Wash.-based company announced Feb. 5 it would cut 250 jobs. A week later, it unveiled a new, more sobering strategic plan aimed at putting the company back in the black in the third quarter. The new marching orders focus on easing out of slow-growth products, including business-to-consumer offerings. The company will shift its focus to the underlying technologies and partner with consumer-oriented companies, according to CEO and founder Naveen Jain. "I have the utmost confidence we will generate significant profitability for our company and our shareholders," Jain says of the new plan. The job cuts were in fact a first step toward this strategy, according to company spokesman Steve Stratz. They were aimed at trimming down sectors outside of the company's high-growth wireless, small-business-oriented merchant services and broadband businesses, as well as eliminating duplicated positions created from the acquisition of Go2Net Inc. finalized in October. In the latter case, Stratz says the layoffs may have leaned more toward duplicate InfoSpace staff than former Go2Net employees. While the cuts were painful, Stratz says they were deemed necessary. While the company experienced four record quarters in 2000, the 2001 forecast isn't as pretty of a picture. "We're not going to grow like that for the year 2001," he says. "The trickle-down has kind of happened. You have people not buying hardware and they're not buying software, and then you don't need the services to run on as much as you once did. We've hit that wall where we need to say 'OK, we need to curb some expectations here, because 2001 is not rosy.'" But with the cutbacks, the company's revised projections for 2001 do see a 1 cent-per-share profit in the fourth quarter, although the year's pro forma share performance will likely end at a loss of 5 cents per share. InfoSpace projects an end-of-year cash balance at $490 million to $500 million. Meanwhile, the company is still planning to use the Go2Net acquisition to expand its broadband services portfolio in consumer and enterprise markets. Mike Riccio, executive vice president of broadband at InfoSpace, says the cutbacks and new strategy will not hurt the high-speed sector. "Our broadband team remains intact and we have been charged with driving this business and being a real driving force behind InfoSpace going forward," Riccio says. Primarily a player in the mobile wireless business, InfoSpace is trying to expand its products to other wired platforms, including cable TV and digital subscriber line technology. In January, it inked deals to provide applications for WebTV players Microsoft Corp., Liberate Technologies and OpenTV. At the same time, it also signed a deal with Bloomberg TV to incorporate interactive links with the finance channel's programming. Similar to AOL-Time Warner Inc.'s "AOL anywhere" concept of content access from multiple devices, Riccio envisions InfoSpace applications running on TV, portable devices and computers. "We're looking at that same opportunity--however doing it in a private label format," Riccio says. "What we're positioning our services to do is really go to a telecommunications provider and provide them with a personal finance application or a gaming application and other things such as that, to really deliver across multiple devices. "What is critical to really understanding the broadband business in terms of where it's going strategically is that you really need to have those applications that can be delivered across those multiple platforms," he adds. Closer to its wireless roots, the delay in fielding broadband 3G technology may be troublesome, but not a major setback. "I think everyone has gone into it with the understanding there is going to be a slow deployment plan," Riccio says. "I think people are going into it with eyes wide open. What gets me excited about the 3G opportunity is it is a logical extension in terms of what we are doing on the broadband side for the PC and the TV." While the company has endured the same cold front gripping much of the Internet content space, Riccio remains optimistic. "I have confidence that given our market position, given the assets we have at InfoSpace, that we will be tremendously successful in getting meaningful distribution for our services," he says. "At the end of the day, the best products will win out here, and I'm pretty confident that we will be a winner here."

To: Bosco who wrote (25281)	2/21/2001 10:21:12 AM
From: Robert Rose	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28311

<it is a dangerous game> You think that's going to stop levy? Heck no. That's going to motivate the guy! <g>

To: Bosco who wrote (25281)	2/21/2001 4:35:08 PM
From: levy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28311

yes bosco I think my sources are the real thing as best I can tell and it is hard to fool Levy.....I did get a comment today from a reliable contact who said that some employees were saying Naveen Jain was an AA for spending only 2 million dollars of his money on INSP stock indicating that he should have bought more like 50 million dollars worth if they wanted them to gain his respect.....so after seeing your remark I wrote back " are you sure they said that" and he said yes and go ahead and post that so I am.....apparently the term AA is one now in common use by certain staff from what I gather. I would like to reiterate that I am glad to post some more favorable comments regarding Naveen Jain or Infospace from anyone like Go2Pepper or others so please write me.....I have also been warned that there is a capability to read messages on silicon investor.com mail so I will get a new email address going pronto but for now I will delete those very quickly.....Levy