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Technology Stocks : Altaba Inc. (formerly Yahoo) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (9768)	4/10/1998 9:51:00 PM
From: Michael Collings	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 27307

here you go William, compliments Marion on MF boards: Yahoo and AltaVista Traffic Accident by Nathaniel Wice and Lev Grossman ÿÿApril 10, 1998 ÿÿÿÿYahoo's outsize pageviews and profits have been the talk of both the Internet and the business world since they were released Wednesday night. Pros on CNBC and other stock talk shows are even speculating about who's going to be "the next Yahoo." But Netly has learned that more than 10 percent of Yahoo's traffic is also being claimed by its sometime partner, AltaVista. In other words, they're double-dipping. ÿÿÿÿTen percent may not seem like much, but the contested 10 million pageviews a day represent more traffic than all but the largest web sites see in a month. By any measure -- even without double-dipping -- Yahoo is still the most popular search service by a wide margin, but the discrepancy casts a shadow over one of the key numbers that yesterday led investors to drive Yahoo's stock price up 17 1/4 points, adding no less than $790 million to the value of the company. ÿÿÿÿAt issue are the AltaVista search results and ad banners that Yahoo serves when a search request fails to match Yahoo's human-made directory. See for yourself by searching on something specific, like the actress Mimi Rogers. ÿÿÿÿWho takes pageview credit for those search results, which are co-branded as both Yahoo and AltaVista? ÿÿÿÿ"We do," said Kathleen Greenler, marketing director for AltaVista. "It helped get us to just under one billion pageviews in February, or 33 million a day. March was even better." DoubleClick, the ad sales company responsible for selling AltaVista's pageviews, confirms estimates that the Yahoo co-branded pages account for some 10 million of AltaVista's daily pageviews. ÿÿÿÿBut ask Yahoo who the shared traffic belongs to, and Jennifer Hwang, a Yahoo spokesperson, said "the ads on the co-branded pages belong to Yahoo." How many are there? Ten million? "We don't break out the pageviews by area, but that number is not so far off that I need to say something." And, yes, they are counted in Yahoo's 95 million figure that has so astounded the world. ÿÿÿÿDoes it matter? Henry Blodget, a stock analyst with Oppenheimer & Co., said the important issue has less to do with the number of pageviews than with who gets to sell the ad: "The only reason to care about controlling the traffic is to place the ad. If Yahoo is able to place the ad, then it's a Yahoo pageview." This sounded clear, and Yahoo's Hwang said, "We have an 'exclusive' selling those pageviews." ÿÿÿÿBut when we showed her that the actual URLs for the banner ads come from DoubleClick's AltaVista server, she mused, "How about that?" DoubleClick's Shapiro added: "It's weird how everything gets divided up. We're selling those banners because Yahoo wasn't, and we said, 'Let us sell them.' And we've been hugely successful with them." Further muddying the issue is the fact that Yahoo could switch to another super spider like Inktomi when its two-year AltaVista deal comes up for renewal this summer -- distribution leverage which suggests that Yahoo does deserve credit for the pages even though they're not Yahoo content or banner space. ÿÿÿÿTwo years ago the most quoted traffic number was "hits," an inflated server statistic that was mistaken by an underinformed public for pages loaded, or even for the number of human visitors. Now expectations -- not to mention investments -- are even higher. Terms such as "pageview" also need to be clarified, especially now that blue-chip web companies with multibillion-dollar valuations are counting 10 million of them twice every day. ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ*

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (9768)	4/11/1998 2:14:00 AM
From: Sonny Blue	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 27307

William, reading through your posts earlier, I understand your strategy is to hold Yahoo stocks for a long time, possibly forever due to its potential Microsoft-liked growth in the future. At the same time, you discuss about its technical chart pattern to make sure it maintains its uptrending course. So, does that mean you would sell the stock if certain pattern develops? I hope I can hold on to this stock forever, but trading it within intermediate term (weeks to months) may not be a bad idea, albeit this could take more time to follow the stock closely. I think a lot of short sellers got killed Thursday, but many more will come Monday. Plus, fresh money will be poured into the stock since the imminent split announcement look too obvious at this point. A feeding frenzy indeed!

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (9768)	4/11/1998 7:54:00 PM
From: yard_man	Respond to of 27307

fair enough, William. Know where you are coming from. Good luck and I'm not about to knock the gains that you've racked up.

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (9768)	4/11/1998 10:26:00 PM
From: Mike M	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 27307

<<Yahoo!s current market value of $5B. Mmm, what's the value of leadership in the fastest growing medium in the history of the planet? Yes, we live in special times. >> How else could this or any other stock get to these unbelievable valuations unless people thought this way....It is no different than the logic used for tulips 350 years ago, or RCA 70 years ago or NSCP or PRST 2 years ago. If the world was stupid enough, no one else would compete with YHOOand 5 or 10 years from now the company might be intrinsically worth a couple billion.... We have a great big balloon filled with helium and sooner or later someone will stick a pin into this puppy and the jig is going to be up...When the momentum starts down, the love affair will die and those who have sworn a lifetime commitment to this stock will watch helplessly (many on the sidelines) as the valuation vaporizes. Most will wonder how they could have ever been silly enough to bid this company up.... Only on Wall Street can we relive this event over and over again. The names change, but not the story.... This time is no different....really it isn't! $5 Billion valuation for a $30M revenue quarter and a great story....Wow! what a racket. Mike PS - no sour grapes here....I have been short the stock twice and made money both times....Though not short now, I will be again, soon....And no, I won't relish the blood in the streets....