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Technology Stocks : Ticketmaster-Citysearch (TMCS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hunter Vann who wrote (186)	12/28/1998 5:27:00 PM
From: R Hamilton	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 803

Ticketmaster Online Rises 7% as Internet Stocks Gain Pasadena, California, Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch Inc., the leading U.S. online provider of city guides, rose 7 percent as investors sought out Internet issues. The Pasadena, California-based company rose 4 7/16 to 69 15/16 trading. Ticketmaster Online, which began trading Dec. 3, is benefiting from intense interest in Internet companies. Shares rose 44 percent since Wednesday, when analysts began issuing reports recommending the stock's purchase. ''We believe the Internet is an ideal medium for discovering local information and accomplishing local tasks, and that local Web guides will become a huge market,'' Keith Benjamin, a BancBoston Robertson Stephens analyst, said in a statement. He initiated coverage of the company today with a ''buy'' rating. ''We believe the company will continue rapid expansion into new markets, as well as develop existing markets to capitalize on the $12 billion Yellow Pages advertising market, the $18 billion retail newspaper advertising market, and the large, multibillion- dollar local e-commerce market,'' Benjamin said. Today's trading boosted the market value of Ticketmaster Online to $4.9 billion, or more than the $4.5 billion market capitalization for Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, Barron's and other financial periodicals. Ticketmaster Online's shares almost tripled to 40 1/4 from 14 during its first day of trading. Last Wednesday, they rose 66 percent to 80 1/2 after Axxel Knutson, president of Axxel Institutional Equities, became the first analyst to recommend the shares, rating them a ''strong buy.'' They fell to 65 1/2 the following day before rising again today. Bear, Stearns & Co. analyst Scott Ehrens also initiated coverage today with an ''attractive'' rating. Ticketmaster was formed in the September merger of Ticketmaster Online, the online ticketing business of Ticketmaster Corp., a subsidiary of USA Networks Inc., and CitySearch Inc., a provider of city guides on the Web for major cities. 16:57:43 12/28/1998