Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (7092)	6/23/1998 8:20:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Corporate America woos Internet firms Reuters Story - June 22, 1998 20:59 %BUS %ENT %US %PUB %TEL %LEI %SP500 %MRG %NEWS DIS SEEK CNWK YHOO AMZN T AOL TWX XCIT LCOS CMCSA TCOMA V%REUTER P%RTR By Andrea Orr PALO ALTO, Calif., June 22 (Reuters) - The question is no longer "if" or even "when." It is: "how much?" How much, that is, the next big company will pay to gain entry in the rapidly growing online business. In the wake of a couple of high-priced alliances between young Internet businesses and some blue chip media giants, Wall Street is looking forward to a summer of deal making. Last week it was Walt Disney Co buying 43 percent of the Internet service Infoseek Corp . The week before it was NBC Inc investing in the online technology news publisher Cnet Inc , a move that has helped Cnet's stock price come close to doubling in less than a month. Now, virtually every Internet company is considered to be "in play," and Internet stocks are scaling new highs as investors bet on more lucrative deals. "We're just at the beginning of very significant merger and consolidation activity. My expectation is we will continue to see a number of partnerships, alliances and mergers," said Jim Breyer of the Palo Alto, Calif. venture capital firm Accel Partners. Of course, sharp rises in the price of Internet stocks is nothing new. Shares of several companies from the most popular Internet directory Yahoo! Inc to the online bookseller Amazon.com Inc have been rising most of the year on expectations of a sparkling future. Professional investors long ago gave up trying to calculate the value of these companies, which by any conventional measure are wildly overpriced as most firms are still not making any money. But with the Disney and NBC deals, as well as unconfirmed reports that AT&T Corp had offered to buy America Online Inc and Time Warner Inc held talks with a number of online companies, the picture has changed. The Internet business has taken a giant step out of the fringe and into the mainstream. Analysts said much of the recent gains in their stock prices are being fueled by unsophisticated individual investors, who know nothing about judging a company's value, but are hearing a lot about "Internet portals" on the six o'clock news. The term portal refers to the largest of the Internet companies, like Yahoo, Excite Inc , Infoseek and Lycos , which provide consumers an entree onto the Internet and add content like news, Web search directories, email and chat services. It is not hard to understand their appeal for bigger corporations. The ultimate name of the game in any business is to attract more consumers, and Internet portals have demonstrated an unusual knack for doing this. Yahoo, for example, attracts more than 90 million page views per day to its online sites in a business that was virtually unheard of just a few years ago. "Everyone believes, correctly, that the Internet will change consumer behavior in various ways," Breyer said. "Increased Internet use may be coming at the expense of other industries, like television, and the leaders in each of these other industries need to put together an effective Internet strategy." Along with telecommunications and television networks, analysts said cable companies, particularly Comcast Corp and TCI Group Inc , were among the most likely investors in Internet businesses. One said the Internet business was the "logical next step" for cable companies seeking to expand. So what is in it for the Internet companies themselves? More than might meet the eye. Behind the exponential increases in traffic to their Web sites and the off-the-charts stock market valuations, Internet companies are struggling to find new ways to build revenues and reach new audiences before their competitors do. "The reality is that the only one of these (Internet) companies that has broad, mass market awareness is America Online," says PaineWebber analyst James Preissler. "Most people still don't know a Yahoo from an Excite, and in order to reach that audience, these companies are going to have to spend a lot of money." Preissler says Internet companies have come close to saturating the initial market for Internet users: the demographic of high-income, at-home consumers and those who have Internet access at work. To reach the real mass market, he said, many companies will have to hook up with a major company that is already a household name. Mergers are not the only option. Stock prices for many Internet companies have gotten so high, they may be priced out of the market. And NBC's $26 million investment to buy a small stake in an Internet company was praised as a cheaper way of getting broad exposure in the growing online market. "They won't have to buy a (company) outright," said Preissler. "They could get the same amount of bang for less money."

To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (7092)	6/23/1998 8:57:00 AM
From: yard_man	Respond to of 164684

It may go to 100, but I agree that a top is near. This last piece, "Corporate America Woos Internets" unadulterated hype that it is, is a real contrary indicator. Good luck.

To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (7092)	6/23/1998 10:12:00 AM
From: Tom D	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

<<<those who weren't smart enough to sell a long time ago are not smart enough to sell now!>>> Skeeter Bug, I am just a physician (=notoriously bad investor--even had some big losses & some smaller winners last year). There is a big difference between being lucky (?AMZN) and being good. Today, with the new high, I just raise my mental stop to 42.5. What do you think about this strategy (i.e. sell when it falls 50% below the record high)? Sure, I could take the money & run now, but I think there could be a lot more upside potential. I think it was Glenn who yesterday described the future share price as "throw a dart". Hang in there, Tom D