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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HiSpeed who wrote (823)	12/13/1998 4:53:00 PM
From: Dante Sinferno	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 122087

Speaking of Net Stocks ..... The Web Has Been a Failure as Ad Medium 80% - of All Web Ad Space Goes Unsold, Leftover Time Dumped at Firesale Prices, Says Forbes ADVANCE/ NEW YORK, Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- In a trio of high-tech scoops in the Dec. 28 issue, Forbes magazine reports that short sellers of two high- flying Internet stocks have lost $2 billion; that the Internet has failed as an advertising medium, with a massive 80% of all Web ad space going unsold; and that a delay in the release of Microsoft's Windows NT 5.0 "might throttle industrywide sales growth for a year or more." In KILLER STOCKS (p.101), Rita Koselka reports that "it's mighty tempting to short those sky-high Internet stocks, but everyone who has tried to do this is getting murdered. Speculators have lost $2 billion in 6 months betting against just two stocks. Amazon.com and Yahoo!, to judge from Nasdaq filings." One short seller confessed to Koselka, "This has been the worst period in my life. I've destroyed the net worth of my family, and I've lost a lot of money for my partners." Some short sellers dared to sell Yahoo! short at $80 last summer, only to watch in horror as it rose another $100 a share in just a few months. Beaten to a pulp, various traders tried to cover their bad bets at various prices, only to see their own buying drive prices up even higher. In WORLD WEARY WEB (p.98), Luisa Kroll, Julie Pitta and Daniel Lyons report that the Web has lured thousands of companies into spending billions to get a foothold in cyberspace -- but that the payoff they had envisioned for selling ads has been a bust: On the Web, more than 1,300 sites sell ads, and 80% of ad inventory goes unsold. Leftover time gets dumped at fire-sale prices. Commissions run as high as 70%. That isn't a business model; it's a equation for failure. In CODE NAME: GODOT Josh McHugh reports that Microsoft's Windows NT 5.0 was supposed to be ready by now, but it's clear that 5.0 won't be out before late 1999 -- if then. Much of the industry is in high anxiety. If NT 5.0 -- recently renamed Windows 2000 -- runs even later, it might throttle industrywide sales growth for a year or more. Big customers may start freezing big purchases by mid-1999 to brace for the year 2000 glitch. SOURCE Forbes Magazine