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Technology Stocks : Qwest Communications (Q) (formerly QWST) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: t36 who wrote (941)	3/6/1998 10:22:00 PM
From: Jerry Miller	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6846

my guess would be (without tongue in cheek this time) that it will turn out to be a safe haven for those wanting to keep money in this sector, when valuations on Qwest finally come correct. ...but more probably because this stock has been yawning since the split. hard to get excited about eighths.

To: t36 who wrote (941)	3/7/1998 3:51:00 PM
From: MangoBoy	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6846

i like the L3 story, mainly because it's taken page-for-page from the QWST business plan. James Crowe, the chairman and CEO of L3 (and before that the CEO of MFS Communications until it was acquired by WorldCom) was on the board of directors of QWST until last November, at which time he quit to go start up L3. IMO, the main differences are: 1) QWST has a significant head start, 2) QWST's market cap is much lower, and 3) there's lots of information about QWST that's publicly available while there's very little verifiable info about L3. A quick read of the L3 thread (which i started) shows a lot of self-reinforcing rumor-mongering and a significant number of dubious participants: nearly a dozen SI accounts created within the last month, all posting only on the L3 thread, all touting L3 (and most disparaging QWST). there's some good info too but you should take much of what you read with a grain of salt. at $36.50/share and 207M shares outstanding, QWST's market cap is around $7.5B. QWST came public with a market cap of $1.8 billion. by contrast, L3's market cap is already almost $10 billion ($68/share times 145 million shares)! as near as i can tell, L3 has yet to put shovel to earth and start constructing their network, and the company will not comment on what rights-of-way will be used or what progress has been made in securing those rights. QWST has most all their rights-of-way in hand, the capex for network buildout has already been paid for by dark finer sales, and we're 12 to 15 months away from having the entire 16,000 mile network installed, lit, and generating revenue. (go to qwest.net to see the current status of the QWST network.) i would approach L3 very carefully. the price right now, IMO, is artificial and unsustainable. the current L3 price may be influenced by KIWT's meager float of only 3 million shares. i believe there will opportunities to get into L3 at a much cheaper price later this year. when that time comes, i'll likely be an L3 investor too. mark