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To: H James Morris who wrote (5178)	6/8/1998 3:47:00 PM
From: Oeconomicus	Respond to of 164684

Greetings all. Been digging in ETrade's free trial of "Professional Edge" where they offer research from our favorite tech stock house - Robbin' & Stealin' -oops- BARS. This should clear up all the confusion caused by Zack's last week with their "news" of estimate changes. Here's the scoop: 1) On 5/28, BARS made the est changes reported, boosting losses in '98 and '99 by 7.7% and 8.3% to ($3.06) and ($2.35) respectively. At the same time, they raised ests for 2000 from $0.02 to $0.12, and 2001 from $1.30 to $1.75. I'll get into the reasoning later. 2) On 6/3, they issued new numbers that were adjusted for the split as follows: '98E ($1.53), '99E ($1.17), '00E $0.06, '01E $0.88. The report is headlined "Maintain Estimates but Adjusting for 2-for-1 Stock Split. Rated Buy." 3) Also in the 6/3 report, they issued numbers that excluded "Amortization of Intangibles" amounting to $19.9mm this year, $28.8mm in '99, and $9.6mm in '00. That line item shows a zero for 1997, Q1 1998 and 2001. The report does not explain these numbers, but I'm guessing they have to do with the acquisitions as I recall a good sized figure for charges in the announcements. Anyway, the ests "excluding intangibles" for 1998-2001 are ($1.12), ($0.61), $0.23, and $0.88. Remember, though, that in order to write off $58 million over the next two years as a "non'cash" charge, the cash had to have gone out the door this Q. So, we can now see that BARS did not raise its estimates on 6/3.* Furthermore, as of 6/3, their price target for the stock remains $44, the figure to which it was raised on 5/28 from a split adjusted $32.50 (pre-split $65). Why they rate it a buy rather than market perform I don't know. More on BARS' report to come. Bob