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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sonki who wrote (11880)	11/22/1998 8:15:00 PM
From: QwikSand	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Sonki: Here's how Sun benefits per the latest AP wire story: Sun Microsystems, in turn, would benefit in two ways: It would take control of Netscape's business-level ''server'' software, and it would enjoy widespread distribution among AOL's 13 million subscribers of its Java technology for running Internet programs. Also the story calls this deal "a stunning alliance that would change the landscape of the nation's technology industry". Will it make SUNW go up or down? Does it turn SUNW into a ".com" style internet-bubble stock :-)? I guess we'll get to see! But I'll tell you, getting AOL to distribute Netscape Navigator with Java instead of IE to its huge and growing customer base sure looks like a pretty good boost to Sun and Java from where I sit. Supposedly the deal may be announced early Monday. Regards, --QwikSand

To: Sonki who wrote (11880)	11/22/1998 8:58:00 PM
From: Mike Milde	Respond to of 64865

Netscape is much more "Java friendly" than Microsoft. The AOL deal would put Netscape in the hands of 10 million more Internet users. Sounds like a long term positive for SUNW, but would probably have no immediate affect. Mike

To: Sonki who wrote (11880)	11/23/1998 1:50:00 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 64865

How would SUNW benefit from Netscape? Netscape Browser can be used with UNIX. MSFT's Browser cannot. Here is an excerpt from a story that I found last week & posted elsewhere. The story mentioned companies that were unhappy with MSFT's Browser. Boeing is one company. Microsoft Web Browser Integration Resented By Some By David Lawsky Here is an excerpt: " Aerospace giant Boeing Co. and two major computer makers were troubled that Microsoft Corp. decided to fold its Internet browser into its Windows operating system, the software giant's antitrust trial heard . Boeing made a conscious choice to use the first version of Windows 95, which had no Web browser. Scott Vesey of Boeing said in a videotaped deposition that the company decided to use Netscape's Navigator because it worked on many operating systems -- such as Unix, which runs high-end scientific work stations -- instead of just Windows. Internal Boeing documents exhibited in court showed that the company was under increasing pressure to switch away from the aging first version of Windows 95 because it cannot handle the latest hardware improvements. Vesey recommended moving to Windows 98 but that would force Boeing to use Microsoft's Internet Explorer. ''We do not have a choice,'' he said in a Boeing report introduced into evidence. ''The integration between Internet Explorer and the desktop operating system cannot be fully disabled.'' Hope this information helps.

To: Sonki who wrote (11880)	11/23/1998 2:46:00 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 64865

Sonki, Since you are interested in technical aspects of a company stock, I read the following in Sunday's The New York Times. Gretchen Morgenson wrote the article, Financial Engineering for "Market Watch" (Section C) To raise capital companies sell put warrants on their own stock to outside investors. MSFT does this. And so does Intel. Dell does it to a lesser extent, according to the author. Morgenson said, "The warrants give buyers the right, for a limited period, to sell shares of stock back to the company at a set "strike" price below the market at the time they buy. In the quarter ended Sept. 30 alone, Microsoft took in $225 million from the sale of puts – a sum equal to 13.4 percent of its net income in the period." Of course, the companies do not expect their share prices to drop. Morgenson said, "While Intel reports the potential liability for its warrants ---currently $588 million ---on its balance sheet, Microsoft does not, so some math is in order. In notes to its financial statements, Microsoft said it had 75 million put warrants outstanding on Sept. 30. They expire between March 1999 and September 2001 and have strike prices of $76 to $88 a share. Taking the average of the two prices, if the company had to buy back all the stock covered by the warrants, it would spend more than 6 billion. That's about one-third of Microsoft's net worth (or shareholders' equity ) of $19 billion. It is unlikely, of course that Microsoft's stock will drop from its current $113.625 to below $76, requiring all the warrants to be exercised. But it's not out of the question. In January, Microsoft stock traded at $63.50."