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Technology Stocks : Safeguard Scientifics SFE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: robert miller who wrote (1477)	7/4/1998 2:43:00 PM
From: William R. Polk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4467

A couple of weeks ago I was in the Philadelphia area (paid a visit to Sanchez Computer, BTW) and came across an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer (6/22/98) on a Phila. area company called Vertical Net (www.verticalnet.com). Its a long article so I only quote part of it here. I thought the SFE and Internet Capital Group connection was interesting. <<They raised $210,000 and started their business, now called Vertical Net Inc. By 1996, after two years of working seven days a week, they had one web site, Water Online, which was attracting a high percentage of their target audience. But the $210,000 was gone and their credit cards were maxed out. They had cash flow, but not enough to expand and become profitable. 'We didn't know if we could continue,' McNulty said. Then Hagan's father, lawyer Jack Hagan, introduced them to an Internet-savvy investor, Ira Lubert, of Safeguard Scientifics, the Wayne venture capital company. This led them to Walter Buckley 3d, president of Internet Capital Group - a joint venture of Safeguard, Comcast Corp., and Compaq Computer Corp., - that invests in business-to-business Internet enterprises. With $16 million from Buckley's group in hand, Hagan and McNulty hired Internet pioneer Mark L. Walsh, 44, from America Online as their chief executive. Today, McNulty and Hagan, both 35, are multimillionaires - at least on paper. Their Horsham-based (Nt: Horsham is suburb of Phila.) company is estimated by the Internet Capital Group to be worth $50 million. Their debt is paid off and, Hagan said, 'We've got our credit cards back.' Their company has grown from one Web site to 16, which are attracting 600,000 visitors annually. It has 105 employees and enough money to grow to 100 sites by 2000.>>