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Technology Stocks : Netscape -- Giant Killer or Flash in the Pan? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: N. David Lessani who wrote (2811)	4/18/1998 1:36:00 AM
From: Kashish King	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 4903

Actually, the new rumor is that the buyout rumor was floated pending a dismal upcoming quarter for the company. Sun Microsystems does not comment on rumors, period. I'm guessing the new rumor is correct based on several factors: 1) They are giving away the source code to Communicator. 2) They are giving away the browser. 3) Nobody would pay several billion for a shareware company. Netscape's CEO isn't particularly bright and combined with what appears to be near total ignorance of this industry I think it's time for him to leave. Clearly the browser should have been given away from the outset. Nothing could have been more fundamentally obvious given the nature of that product and the vast potential for revenue from supporting software and services. Moving Marc Andreessen out of the picture was probably the only correct thing Netscape ever did as you don't take an OK programmer and put him in charge of the entire software engineering effort. Assembling real technology which already existed and putting a few buttons on it does not make a technological guru or a seasoned professional who knows how to deliver quality software; he is neither and now they've screwed that up by putting him back in a position of importance. "Netscape President and CEO James Barksdale declined virtually his entire pay package last year, as the software maker lost money. Barksdale received $1 in salary and returned 300,000 stock options." It's called knowing what you're worth and maintaining a high-profile position for as long as you can milk the image. I would also call it not being particularly bright but I mentioned that already.