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Technology Stocks : USWeb (USWB) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: craig crawford who wrote (629)	10/3/1998 1:12:00 PM
From: Rick	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1188

Regarding: Smoke and Mirrors (and Beards) The Street.Com article is humorous, but it also points to something that really should be a concern to thoughtful investors. That is, US Web has been more about illusion than substance from the beginning: - conference calls full of blabber and boasts, designed merely to lure unsophisticated investors into an exciting 'net play - deals with name brand companies to provide the illusion that US Web was on the same playing field. Reference the deal done with CBS, where in order to get the work US Web granted stock warrants. Reference the ownership position of Intel - did Intel believe in the value of US Web....I doubt it, but their treasury is not going to pass up an allocation of cheap stock that it knows it can sell to a hyped up public after the illusion machine gets rolling. - press releases that go beyond positive spin, into a land so far from reality to induce dizziness and perhaps hypnotism in the reader. - ceo jawboning the stock on Yahoo and Silicon Investor (gee, we haven't had any comment from him in a while, wonder what that suggests...) - stock buyback intended to give the impression of a stable, high cash-flow generating, value stock (actually intended to stimulate investor demand by the illusion that it's actually worth $12/share). Overheard in US Web Boardroom: Boss: "Yeah guys, let's do what IBM, Intel, and Proctor & Gamble do when they want to get their stock price up, let's have a buyback", Silly Underling: "But Boss, we're a startup, we need that money to grow our business, and besides, we just sold this stock to the public in an IPO at $7 less than a year ago. How can we justify taking investors money at $7 / share and buying the stock back at $12" Boss: "Shut up you idiot, or I'll have you out at a client coding HTML" SU: "Sorry Boss" And now, we can add to the list.....Joe Firmage's beard, what will the masters of deception think of next ? Well, how about a little name change.....I think our name is a little out of date. It made alot of sense way back in....what was it ?...late 1997. But this is a new era now......... Anyway, my personal and as always, humble, opinion is that the masters of deception are on their way to the history books, as one of the most entertaining stock schemes of the internet craze. For all you investors that think just because it once sold for $38, it is now cheap, I have a single word (popularized by James Cramer): WRONG! Cheers. Rick.