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Technology Stocks : WavePhore (WAVO)- VBI fed WaveTop for WebTV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Struggling Investor who wrote (1163)	4/7/1998 5:44:00 AM
From: dale sicher	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 2843

An excerpt from a news story @ zdnet.com "April 6, 1998, 5:00 PM EST MS Vs. DOJ: More Than Browsers At Stake If the U.S. Department of Justice ends up filing another anticompetition case against Microsoft Corp., it's anyone's guess what the agency's central argument will be. DOJ officials would not comment on when or whether the agency might levy another antitrust case against Microsoft. If Windows 98 is to be included within the focus of such a case, industry experts said that the DOJ will need to act before the end of this month, which is when Microsoft is aiming to send its Windows 98 code to manufacturing, in preparation for commercial shipment of the product on June 25. Once the Windows 98 code is in hardware vendors' hands-which is expected to happen by mid-May-a move to block the product's shipment is likely to be dismissed as having a chilling effect on the market, said experts. In the meantime, Microsoft is hardly standing still. The company's lawyers have "gone to the bargaining table" with the DOJ over Windows 98 licensing and marketing terms and conditions, said sources. The results of those negotiations have been thus far inconclusive, said sources close to the case. The DOJ, for its part, is casting an ever-wider net in its ongoing information-collection campaign, according to sources close to the investigation. A number of states are conducting simultaneously their own investigations and are issuing their own Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs), seeking information from various industry players. Hardware, software and other industry sources said that among the prime areas the DOJ is investigating are: Microsoft's dealings with Internet content providers in both the areas of exclusivity (requiring developers to create sites that run best and/or only with Internet Explorer) and positioning (in terms of Active Channel bar placement of Microsoft- and non-Microsoft content)" my comments: Whether or not Wavephore can be considered an Internet content provider (more like a middleman, no?) the fact that WaveTop will only work with a customized IE4 is a typical example of Microshaft's anti-trust behavior. Even though Wavephore is more than just WaveTop it is this particular product launch which has been responsible for driving recent interest in the stock. If the DOJ gets tough one consequence might be that Wavephore make WaveTop work with Netscape and I wonder how long it would take for them to do this. A temporary suspension of WaveTop would seemingly put significant near-term downside pressure on WAVO's stock price unless their Newscast division had a rip-roaring quarter and they blow away earnings estimates in a couple of weeks. (I've been harping about this IE4 exclusivity for days now but nobody either seems to understand its' possible ramifications or cares.) From last night's David Letterman Top Ten List for "Ways to Make Filing Your Taxes More Interesting": #10: Let everybody just pay what they want and make Bill Gates take care of the rest.