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To: flickerful who wrote (3698)	10/28/1998 6:17:00 PM
From: hookjock	Respond to of 17679

"In connection with the previously announced strategy, during the third quarter of 1998, the Company made a small cash investment and acquired an option to purchase a controlling interest in a web hosting company." It appears that whatever Ed has on his mind he has chosen to keep all of us uninformed and left to guess at what he may be up to. At the very least he could give us the bare facts so we could form a better opinion about where the company is headed. How small a cash investment and which web hosting company?

To: flickerful who wrote (3698)	10/28/1998 6:21:00 PM
From: hookjock	Respond to of 17679

One last point. Is it not customary and usual for the president/CEO to make a few remarks in the earnings release? Why all the secrecy? Perhaps it was even a good time for the new guy(Cooper) to say a few words about the earning results .

To: flickerful who wrote (3698)	10/28/1998 7:22:00 PM
From: Hal Campbell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17679

MicroNet inclusive sales were ......uhhhh.....well I won't use any of the words that come to mind. The core business is vanishing at a remarkable speed. DCR sales almost have to be tanking in a large way. A couple interesting items. Royalties , like most everything else, down sharply for the year, but actually up a bit quarter over quarter. Around 17 million in their own cash left, it seems. + 44 million in borrowed cash. They have lost over 6 million from operations thus far this year - and if it weren't for the royalties, that would be almost 12 million. Therefore their manufacturing operations are of late spectacularly unprofitable ( around -23cents per share in the last 9 months )- even with the move and downsizings and reduced R&D. I can only assume that the option to buy a controlling interest in a web host locks in a price and was purchased to hedge another skyward move in valuation for those companies. If there was a rapid descent they would buy elsewhere. The option simply buys time, and it is understandable for several reasons why they do not release the name. They obviously have to be extraordinarily careful about how they spend their borrowed cash, because it is awfully hard to repay any loan when you are actually losing money.