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To: McNabb Brothers who wrote (11946)	7/28/1998 4:28:00 PM
From: llamaphlegm	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Hank: Let sleeping dolts lie!!! LP

To: McNabb Brothers who wrote (11946)	7/28/1998 7:32:00 PM
From: H James Morris	Respond to of 164684

<COMMONMAN, Where have you been?> Some nobody's come and go.

To: McNabb Brothers who wrote (11946)	7/29/1998 7:39:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

uly 29, 1998 Multiples Paid for Digital-Media Firms Surge From Year Ago, M&A Data Show By GEORGE ANDERS Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Corporate acquirers are so eager to make a splash on the Internet that they agreed to spend $4.6 billion in this year's first half on some 112 digital-media acquisitions, paying valuations that averaged a lofty 16 times annual revenue. Analysts for months have been commenting on skyrocketing valuations for Internet-related businesses. But the first-half mergers-and-acquisition data, compiled by Broadview International LLC, a New York investment bank specializing in technology companies, provides one of the clearest gauges yet of just how steeply the perceived value of each dollar of Internet-related revenue is surging. Just a year earlier, purchasers of digital-media companies paid a much lower 2.7 times annual revenue, on average, according to Broadview. In 1997's first half, 106 digital-media deals were announced, for a total value of $2.2 billion. In both 1997 and 1998, the transactions included many Internet-related investments, as well as some purchases of financial-data firms and game companies. "The Internet market is an area like no other," said Steve O'Leary, a Broadview managing director. Only some computer-networking and computer-security companies can command valuations anywhere near as high, he observed, and even those booming markets don't enjoy quite the premiums seen in the Internet sector. Internet valuations may have further still to climb in the second half of 1998, Mr. O'Leary said. He noted that his firm this spring advised on Yahoo! Inc.'s acquisition of Viaweb Inc. That transaction was valued at about $50 million when it closed June 9, he said, but within three weeks a surge in Yahoo!'s stock price had pushed the value to nearly $100 million. If shares of publicly traded companies such as Yahoo! remain at current levels or climb further, Mr. O'Leary said, that will increase the ability of those companies to make acquisitions at record prices without diluting the value of their existing shares much. Across the entire technology sector, Broadview found, some 2,546 transactions were announced world-wide in the first half, up 15% from a year earlier. Total dollar volume amounted to $292 billion, nearly triple the year-earlier pace, as several giant telecommunications transactions pushed up the ledgers. Broadview also noted that small, closely held companies are becoming far more likely to be sold to a larger corporate buyer than to pursue an initial public offering. Among such companies, 1,028 were sold, while just 86 carried out IPOs. That was a record total for acquisitions, and the lowest number for such IPOs since 1993. "People are much more focused on market leadership in any niche," said Paul Deninger, chairman and CEO of Broadview. "They're less interested in investing in the No. 4 company in any area." As a result, he said, big companies are willing to pay premium prices to acquire a small competitor, even as that smaller company has a hard time attracting much interest in a public stock offering.