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Technology Stocks : Netscape -- Giant Killer or Flash in the Pan? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: George Bielski who wrote (4034)	8/11/1998 7:16:00 AM
From: Tracker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4903

Here we go: Yet another major company is making a bet on the growth of the World Wide Web. Citicorp yesterday said it has struck a deal with Netscape Communications Corp. to provide a wide range of financial information and services on Netscape's highly trafficked Internet site. Under terms of the marketing agreement, Citicorp will be the principal sponsor of Netscape's personal-finance channelone of the many areas on its Netcenter Web site. While Netscape will program content, Citicorp will offer such financial services as stock trading, insurance, bank accounts and mortgages. The Citicorp name will be prominently displayed, although other financial partners will be represented. Citicorp will be free to strike deals with other Internet services. Investors seemed to approve, boosting Netscape's stock $6.125, or 24%, to $31.1875 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading, on rumors of the Citicorp deal, as well as the appointment of a new chief operating officer at the company and expectations of solid results in next week's third quarter earnings report. Citicorp stock rose $1 to $152.50 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Citicorp already offers its customers on-line banking on the Web and on such gated services as America Online Inc. But it has been intent on expanding its electronic products and services to attract new customers and to raise its visibility in the fast-growing Internet space that is now dominated by so-called portals such as Netcenter, and those offered by Yahoo! Inc. and Excite Inc. While the companies declined to provide exact financial details of the alliance, people familiar with the arrangement said that Citicorp will pay Netscape more than $40 million as a minimum guarantee for new customers the bank expects to attract and more beyond that. Citicorp's director of global electronic commerce, Josh Grotstein, described the arrangement as a "pay-for-performance" deal. "We think of these portals as the networks of the future and an important part of reaching our goal of getting to one billion customers by 2010," Mr. Grotstein said. "There is no question that this is groundbreaking in that it takes the world's largest financial institution and brings them to millions of new customers online," said Netscape's executive vice president and Netcenter general manager, Mike Homer. "It also gives us credibility in that the big companies think this medium is important to their future." In related news, Netscape said it had signed a deal with Ford Motor Co.'s Visteon Automotive Systems unit to license its e-commerce software, in an arrangement similar to its Citibank deal. The Dearborn, Mich., car-parts company will use Netscape software to create a supply-chain system for customers and suppliers.