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 : Winstar Comm. (WCII) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: silicon warrior who wrote (7971)	8/27/1998 12:41:00 PM
From: Brian Coakley	Respond to of 12468

From today's NY Times Op-ed page: nytimes.com By DAVID C. MCCOURT RINCETON, N.J. - The most profound emotion running through the executive offices of the nation's former telecommunications monopolies these days must be terror. The clearest example of this terror is the steady stream of megamerger announcements, which somehow feel incomplete without mentioning the word "billions." AT&T announces a takeover of TCI; Bell Atlantic, which is still adjusting to its acquisition of Nynex, merges with GTE; SBC Communications buys Pacific Telesis and then Ameritech. The list goes on and on, but these deals share one trait (beyond paying the greens fees of lawyers and investment bankers) -- they probably won't work. If 100 years of business history has taught us anything, it is that Godzilla can't marry King Kong and live happily ever after. For all the headlines these deals generate, the megamergers are unlikely to create great companies. This is particularly true when an industry begins a period of profound and dramatic change. The telecommunications industry has entered such an era, and its future is being powered by two things: the Internet and consumers' demand for competition. The big, traditional telecommunications companies don't understand the Internet, and they have no interest in competition. That's why they are all becoming such good friends these days. Federal Express was not born of a megamerger. Neither was Microsoft, Wal-Mart or Sony. Companies that become industry leaders are marked by strong values, clear goals and better ideas. The chances that these stars will line up to create a great company are slim anyway. In the case of a company produced by a gigantic merger, it becomes a near impossibility. Moving from a battleship to an aircraft carrier doesn't just give you a bigger boat, it gives you a bigger boat to turn around. When an industry enters a time of unprecedented transformation, market leaders are rarely -- if ever -- able to embrace these changes and retain their market dominance. Railroads didn't become airlines. Western Union didn't become AT&T. Horse-drawn buggy makers didn't go on to lead the automotive revolution. These kinds of shifts don't happen, because companies that dominate a certain technology find it close to impossible to cannibalize their own business to embrace the changes being imposed on them. One other fact blows holes in the wisdom of nearly all of the megamergers by telecommunication companies. These businesses have aging and inferior equipment and technology, which are ill-suited to compete in today's digital world. The merger of two gigantic companies does nothing to help solve this problem. Today's telecom dinosaurs won't be able to move through this period of innovation by forging an even greater alliance with the past. The solution for the Bell Atlantics, AT&T's and TCI's of the world is not to become bigger. It is to do the hard and sometimes painful work needed to make their existing businesses better. Unfortunately, the eyes of the terrified often see bigger as better, even when the reality dictates the opposite. David C. McCourt is the chairman of RCN Corporation, a telecommunications and Internet company.

To: silicon warrior who wrote (7971)	8/27/1998 2:00:00 PM
From: limtex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12468

SW, SteveG and All - I thought I would just share with everyone that I feel much better today. Seriously I do. I think the sell off both here and in Europe has gone way too far and I suppose it was always oing to over shoot down just as it overshoots up. There is some great value out there that is independent of anywhere outside the US. Take one such for instance WCII. looked at today WCII looks very good ofr all sorts of reasons not the least of which is that Deutsche Telekom has suddenly woken up to that fact that is going to have to do very much better to keep analysts happy in future and that means it is going to have to get even more active on acquisitions. And further more those acquisitions better not be in some clapped out emerging market so what better palce to buy something than in the US. And what better part of the business o be in than WLL? Telecom has been in a bit of a depression for August except for the flurry over T/BTY. But the essential facts are that this industry is going to carry on growing traffic and consolidating companies for the next three years at least as well as adapting the whole country to all sorts of new services. These are big money making opportunities for all converned especially the investment bankers who will and probably are right now working on a whole series of transaction for the autumn. Even pain in the a.. innocent bystander investors like us can make something in these deals!!! So ...I feel better. Regards, l