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To: Craig Lieberman who wrote (441)	1/29/1998 8:45:00 AM
From: Dale Baker	Respond to of 118717

All I can say is that the market doesn't seem to give much value to resellers, even a company like this which has carefully established a high-margin niche. TA shows it is pretty much flat with a slow decline. There are better movers and shakers out there. Today I'm looking at KLIC as a good bounceback play. Roger Babb is recommending CPQ; it usually pays to follow his lead. Good luck.

To: Craig Lieberman who wrote (441)	1/29/1998 4:23:00 PM
From: jgideon	Respond to of 118717

Craig, PROG and MALL seem to be very similar. Both are computer re-sellers (MALL has 3 catalogs, a few stores, net sites, and an internet auction site), selling for about $10, with FY 98 EPS estimates of around 0.90. I've been looking into MALL, but haven't done more than a cursory glance at PROG. MALL has a left over stigma of being dependent on their Mac business, which is down to about 20% of revs last quarter (I do note that Apple had a good 4th Q in sales, so this quarter Mac is not bad). They have been expanding by buying up others, notably ComputAbility last summer and Elek-Tek this fall. The expense savings involved was quoted as substantial in their 10-Q's. MALL also has a deal with Ingram Micro to let their customers order from Ingram's larger range of products through MALL. Thus MALL can offer a wider range of products, does not have to stock slow moving merchandise, and Ingram drop ships it as if it came from MALL. The company has been very good since losing money in 1996 about controlling costs. I wouldn't mind seeing days sales outstanding drop a bit from 45, but this isn't the build to order model here. I like the u-Bid internet auction site - not particularly for the auctions, but as a way of clearing excess inventory. If they can make money via the auctions, so much the better. See cc-inc.com for more info. Especially go to investor relations, then company facts, and get a report on their stock. I do note that MALL was down 6% today, while PROG was up almost 10%. jg