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Technology Stocks : Altaba Inc. (formerly Yahoo) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dave Mansfield who wrote (15799)	12/2/1998 11:06:00 PM
From: HG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27307

Dave, I think we agree on few issues....and thats a start. <<< first and best do not always win.>>> I agree with you in principle. But we are talking substance here. Re: the betamax example, I would say that was because SONY became too arrogant and stopped evolving. But the Laser Disks did not take off either....and I see your point. These were well ahead of their times, customers were not ready to trade in their brand new VCRs for LDs. Well, that may be the case. If customers are not ready for internet, etailing yet, then of course I rest my case. Apart from that, YHOO has to be aware of the customer requirements and preferences. As long as it can evolve, I see a great future ahead. <<< I still think Yahoo is too overvalued to happen.>> I agree with you, we have priced ourselves out and the cost benefits of an acquisition are remote. MadDog had described some mergers where "pooling" of shares took place. This would assume a third entity would be born as a spin off and somehow an equitable solution is achieved. Mergers and acquisitions is not my strong point so I'll have to excuse myself and seek assistance from industry experts. <<<people who still buy a Rolls don't do so just because of the nameplate. Those cars are still well built>>> Thats beside the point Dave. There is very little difference between a Merc and Lexus, but I believe there is a substantial price difference. I'm not into cars and don't know respective prices here in US - so maybe this is a wrong example, but I'm sure you get the point. How much more value does a brand name add ? Yet people are loyal to brands. What is the difference between top of the range Minolta and lower model of Pentax ? Only the price - Pentax costs much more. Yet, people buy Pentax. No matter how hard Minolta may try to become an upmarket brand, there will be masses who feel comfortable with Pentax because they associate Pentax with quality, their fathers and grandfathers did. Its brand loyalty and habit. And it was achieved by first mover advantage which Pentax had in that segment and with those products. And habits are difficult to break. YHOO has not achieved that kind of following...not yet, but it is ahead of its competitors by a mile. (was - till the AOL deal, I may have to go look at the revised figures now). And if it can stay that way by evolving with the internet, it will remain an industry leader. As for the fundamentals, they are relative to the industry. If EBay and AMZN can justify theirs, YHOO is of course much more ahead.