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Technology Stocks : General Magic -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: up_tick who wrote (3136)	8/2/1998 12:06:00 PM
From: Kurt Goebel	Respond to of 10081

Up_tick, more black cloud stuff? >I like to see track records for those people that have VP and >President in their titles, they are the ones that determine the >strategy, decide on the tactical plans, and make everything happen. I posted the link, guess you didn't see it? It's on their web page as well. By the way, the General Magic press releases have said that the board is involved in guiding the company and providing contacts. Go back and read what I posted, please. What could be better, having big carriers CEO's guide you. Isn't this just tremendous? Certainly I've pondered things similar to your questions before. As for the financing, they needed some money for their business plan. Reasonable right. They got some in March. They had to give a favorable rate to get it. Seems very reasonable right. That's what companies do. Other ways they could have gotten it were not as favorable. They could have given away part of the control of the company like many companies are forced to do to raise venture capital. Nothing funny there. Business plans cost money. Where do you think you get money for ops centers, hiring more staff, training, product development. The financing, and the Microsoft cash got things going and allowed them to finish Portico. Yes the public has gotten excited, but without the cash it would not have happened. They couldn't wait to get the initial money as you suggested. They knew that they needed more and waited for a better price. >Why did GMGC run so much non-material media activity? I'll buy >the PR was necessary in order to launch, but the news was designed >to give the stock some internet cachet, not to build awareness for >consumers. That tells me they probably don't have much experience >managing the relationships between PR and IR. Why do you feel this way? The answer is right in front of you. You label it "non-material media activity". I think it is called marketing. Other successful companies issue press almost every day on anything they can. It's called gaining mindshare. It's called differentiation. Almost every company out there want's to have the word "internet" in it's press. Why do you think this is for investors? They are not pumping investors. If they were they would have turned on the IR PR before the first round of capital raising earlier this year. They certainly want to be known as a coordinator of communications. A company building the tools for people wanting to stay in touch. The internet is communication, e.g., this bb right here. It is not hard to find a company pushing "internet" harder, Sun, Netscape, Microsoft, ... The telecoms would love to get in on it, to extend the phone to it. General Magic wants the phone companies to carry Portico. Why wouldn't they put "internet" in their press releases. They are hooking up with it, right. There is nothing mis-represented. Their integration is exciting, isn't it? >And finally, where are all the resellers. I did some checking last >week, not a single reseller in southern California was able to sign >up a customer on launch day - no kits, no trained reps. I also found >many are one-man-shows that have hustled themselves into a business >hoping to capitalize on the signup inrush. So where are the name >brand resellers and carrier commitments? First, I'm not sure I can believe everything you say given that negetive and off key is all you post. Second, General Magic has told me that there are certain requirement of resellers which your analysis of "one man show" doesn't fit. Third, reports have been given that show thousands of resellers being signed on day one by some resellers. Resellers are independent businesses. They are not sales arms of General Magic. They sign contracts with General Magic to resell Portico. They have their own business plans. They have requirements. They are or will be selling or they will be dropped. There certainly are gung-ho resellers selling like mad. You can pick it up from one that is. I think you might like a little explanation of what a progressive rollout is? It's like a snowball which starts out somewhere and as you roll it in the snow, it gets bigger and bigger. It means that the company is rolling it out with it's 52 initial resellers (more have already been added by the way). All are signed to resell Portico, but not all are up and running day one. This is where it starts. More resellers will come on line. Any initial issues are resolved. Portico is shown to work and work well with increasing numbers of customers and load. They have the focus and cash to do this. Big resellers are sold, carriers are sold. "progressive" means more and more over time. Did you really expect a small company to grow at the snap of some fingers without raising capital and sign every reseller and carrier on a service that is not yet in use. The plan is laid and they have hit the milestones. The service is real. Just like the initial raising of capital got the ball rolling, the initial resellers get the ball rolling. Milestone to milestone.