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Technology Stocks : OBJECT DESIGN Inc.: Bargain of the year!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hasbeen101 who wrote (2359)	10/7/1998 5:30:00 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 3194

(OFF TOPIC) Damien, here's an interesting news that somehow illustrates what I told you in my message #2231 on this thread: For an HTML version of Street Life, visit fortune.com Street Life Tuesday, October 6, 1998, 6:15 p.m. Bertelsmann to Buy barnesandnoble.com? By Andrew Serwer Started out with a bang. Going out with a whimper. Stocks roared ahead at the open on Monday and then just turned, turned, turned. As in down. Got a little updraft at the end. So the Dow ended up the day 16 points, to 7742. The NASDAQ however, good friends, was down 25.80, to 1510. Another 1% loss, plus! Skew it! Here's what we've been following: AMAZON.COM TO TAKE A HIT?... Here's the beef: Bertelsmann, the German media giant, is about to buy 50% of barnesandnoble.com. Remember the announcement about barnesandnoble.com being spun off, or IPOed? Forget it! Not going to happen now! BTW, barnesandnoble.com lost $30 million last year. Now Bertelsmann is putting up $200 million for a 50% stake. Why? To go mano a mano against Amazon. In this biz, Amazon has a 50% share; B&N's share is in the low teens. How is Bertel going to do battle? Well, first of all they OWN Random House, Bantam, Doubleday, and Dell--they're twice as big as the next biggest book publisher. So they OWN the books. Amazon.com doesn't own any. Second, they have infrastructure, like warehouses, forklifts (love forklifts!!), mailing centers, etc. Amazon.com has little infrastructure. So our German friends are just amortizing their overhead!!! My main man Marc Gunther wonders, "Isn't this a real challenge to Amazon?" Got that right Marco!! Watch Amazon stock tomorrow!!!! ***************************************** Bertelsmann is one of the Big Five in the music industry (with Sony Music, Warner, EMI, and PolyGram/Seagram). As it starts to kick Amazon around we can think of this e-book/music selling business as of the browsers' business.... Remember Microsoft vs. Netscape? Well, now we have the Big Five vs. N2K/CDNow/Amazon/... Place your bets! Gustave.

To: hasbeen101 who wrote (2359)	10/7/1998 7:53:00 AM
From: Edward F. Horst Jr.	Respond to of 3194

Amazing how much businesses pay for inefficiencies in the computer operation! Maybe the CEO's whose butts are on the line with earnings pressures going forward will begin realizing many of the CIO's who control incredible budgets perhaps aren't the business people they thought. It's the government's purchasing method: Buy the lowest cost whether it works well or efficiently. With these types of positive comparisons, it's incredible ODIS can't be growing exponentially.

To: hasbeen101 who wrote (2359)	10/7/1998 11:13:00 AM
From: Bob Trocchi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3194

Damien... First your analysis on cost/benefits is excellent. Many people often vote with their wallets unless the product they buy is so well known that it becomes the safe decision. Years ago, IBM charged a premium for their products but the expression "you did not lose your job by going with IBM" had a lot of meaning. ODIS charges a premium but is is not yet considered a safe "keep my job decision." Thus, from a marketing standpoint they need to establish their product as THE SAFE decision and truly establish brand identity. Not easy, unfortunately not done quickly and to date many of us believe marketing has not been one of ODIS's strong suits. Your comment in your post... >>The "need for speed" is great in the finance industry. << You have great experience in the finance industry and ODIS has had some success there. With the real or perceived financial crisis are financial institutions cutting back on their IT purchases and therefore indirectly impacting ODIS. Just a thought but I would like your opinion on that matter. Cheers Bob T.

To: hasbeen101 who wrote (2359)	10/7/1998 3:11:00 PM
From: ahhaha	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3194

With hardware prices and speed improving even faster than could be imagined, who needs objects? Who needs to change a major investment in something old when its inefficiencies are continually hidden by technology at a greater rate than needed. In the current environment when the risk of sound money is rising, you don't go experimenting in what isn't needed. This won't change in the foreseeable future. The world beats a path away from your door when you build a better mousetrap. Now you see why.