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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: drmorgan who wrote (11769)	10/25/1998 12:58:00 PM
From: Normandi	Respond to of 74651

Derek. Better not change your mind once you have decided to become a browser company.... Catch this one in the Chronicle this morning? chron.com >>>>> Zapata shareholders file suit, say Net strategy was misleading Copyright 1998 Houston Chronicle Shareholders have sued Zapata Corp., saying they were misled by the company's short-lived venture to convert itself into an Internet company. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, said "the defendants used misleading positive statements to artificially inflate the price of Zapata stock, causing the price of Zapata shares to quickly double." It said Zapata managers took advantage of this rise in Zapata's stock price, selling off more than $5.6 million of their holdings at peak prices. Zapata officials could not be reached for comment late Friday. The Houston company's stock soared with its announcements that it planned to buy more than 30 Internet companies at a time when investor interest in Web-connected companies was sky-high. But Zapata, which is in the fishing and food products businesses, recently said it was not going to close on those purchases, and was reconsidering its strategy. Shares of Zapata, which hit a 12-month high of 24 on July 7, closed Friday at 7 3/4, according to Bloomberg News. The suit was filed by the Philadelphia law firm of Berger & Montague. >>>> If ever there was a case where both sides deserve to lose this is it. It doesn't take a lot of smarts to smell the spoiled fish when a food products company decides to become an Internet company overnight. Good Investing Norm

To: drmorgan who wrote (11769)	10/25/1998 1:37:00 PM
From: ed	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

Well, It seems you are not a business man , and probably did not even understand the whole high Tech industry. First I would say it is very common for the high tech industry to integrate different products to either increasing the performance / price ratio which will benefit the consumers. Example: 1) Semiconductor companies integrate different function blocks into the existing product all the time to reduce the cost and product performance at the same time, while the price of the improved products will be even lower. 2) Auto companies always set additional features as standard while the price will not be changed, example : Companies may add ABS break as standard for their new models, while the price may not be increased. 3) Softwareware companies also integrate their products together to make the new integrated product perform better and the price of the new product may not be increased, and sometimes will be decreased. Say, one company has x, y, z, w products, it may give away x products , so that they will promote y, z, w products and make more money by selling more y, z, w products. Or they may integrate x, y, z, w as one new product and sell it at a new price. As I said , most of the cost for Soft ware company is R&D, after it get the R&D expense back, the additional copies it sells is almost pure profit. So, there are big rooms for software to reduce price while still enjoy a big profit margin. I do not think Microsofy is giving away the IE free, because it is integrate it into OS , which means it is improving OS while at the same time maintain the same price of OS . This only improve the OS, and benefit the consumers. And this will also promote the E-commerce business of Microsoft, as well as Yahoo, AMZM , ALO ...etc. It also benefit the whole economy as well, because all OS from Microsoft has an browser included, and every user of OS will have a chance to buy airline ticket through internet ...etc. Even if MSFT did not integrate IE into OS , but just give IE free to the consumers, so that it will promote its e-commerce business. It is nothing wrong with that either. If based on DOJ's theory, then the price of every new product should be raised, other wise it will be called unfair market conduct. So, the price of FORD 1997 new car should be higher than that of 1996, and the price of 1998 should be higher than 1997. So, when Intel integrate the video and audio capacity into its new CPU, the price should be much higher , otherwise , Intel will be counted as dumpper of market, and violate the anti trust law. Which means, the inflation will be sky high after couple of years. Because all companies will have to increase the price of their new products significantly to meet the DOJ's anti trust standard so that they will not be suited. This is a disaster to the consumers and economy.

To: drmorgan who wrote (11769)	10/25/1998 2:35:00 PM
From: John F. Dowd	Respond to of 74651

Derek Morgan: It is a good thing that Bill gates did not share your lack of optimism or he would never have thought of developing an OS in the face of Digital research or the monster IBM. It is true that the later one enters a field the more difficult it is to displace those that are entrenched in the market place. That is why we have only a limited number of auto manufacturers. It is a daunting task to take the big boys on in a direct attack. Those that have lost to the Big Three auto manfrs. have not run to the DOJ to have them emasculated. Big business is a rough and tumble place. I would submit that NSCP had a great opportunity and blew it and now hope to recoup by dint of legislation. It would seem that according to Mr. Barksdale's testimony that no one in that co. was in agreement with him or each other and basically the others were all fools, liars or both. When you consider the browser I see it as no more than a utility that brings the serial port in contact with the web through a modem or ethernet board. It is important but no more so than the key board, comm. software, Disk I/O, Scanner driver etc.The joke is that it is considered an application at all. The bells and whistles have made it appear as an application but it is basically a resident generic interpreter (java or html) that translates data coming from the web. Indeed drawing lines between OS and app. becomes increasingly difficult and in time as the OS grows more seamless the distinction becomes blurred to the point of none at all. MSFT has been clever enough to make its browser utility modular enough to accomodate other users such as AOL and the like. As the distinction becomes less distinct certainly the drawing of this line should not be left in the hands of the DOJ or the courts as the Court of Appeals has already decided. JFD

To: drmorgan who wrote (11769)	10/25/1998 8:48:00 PM
From: XiaoYao	Respond to of 74651

Derek, what is a feature and what is a "product"? First, who has the right to determinate this? The company or companies who develop their products or the government or some academic committees? Everyone has different opinions on it. The line is not very clear and keeps changing. Second, there is no need to even to try to draw this line. Market will draw this line itself. If separated products make sense and make more money, companies will adopt it. If the integrated product won more consumers, then companies will shift their strategy as well. Why artificially draw this line to protect some free market losers? Also you can't using dollar amount to draw this line, if 1 million can draw the line, why no $999,999.99? If you think it as a "product", you would say why give away a product that you spent millions. But if you think it as a feature of a bigger product, then it is part of development cost of the bigger product. Just like TCP/IP in Win95/Win98, you could say the same things because it used to be sold separately as a product.