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To: larry who wrote (16800)	1/2/1999 1:51:00 PM
From: tonyt	Respond to of 27307

Barrons: The Queen Told You So After strong holiday 'Net sales, expect volatility Review \| Preview Follow-Up: Charging the 'Net Wall Street was positively ebullient last week about stronger-than-expected Christmas sales over the Internet, but that shouldn't come as a surprise to Barron's readers. Robust electronic commerce during the holidays was predicted two weeks ago by Mary Meeker, the Morgan Stanley Internet analyst we dubbed "Queen of the 'Net" in our December 21 issue (see article). As Meeker put it, "When people see the Christmas data, they will say, 'Wow!" That pretty much sums up the reaction last week. Not only did industry leaders such as America Online, Amazon.com and Yahoo see their stock prices advance, but huge percentage gains were scored by formerly obscure outfits that are now laying claim to some small slice of the E-commerce market. Perhaps the most notable was SkyMall, which surged as high as 48 last week before settling back to 20 7/8, still well above the 12 9/16 level where it started the week. SkyMall said its fourth-quarter Internet sales tripled to $1 million this year. Somehow, this modest announcement sent SkyMall's market value rocketing to $255 million, up from as little as $42.5 million in the days before Christmas. Yet SkyMall's main business, selling goods through in-flight magazines on airplanes, has been disappointing and has generated minimal profits. The company's earnings in the first nine months of 1998 totaled eight cents, down from 12 cents a year earlier. When Meeker was interviewed by Barron's in mid-December, she said that she'd actually be pleased to see 'Net stocks decline at some point, and she suggested that a slide might come in the first quarter if early-1999 sales figures fall short of those being chalked up for the fourth quarter. All this no doubt will be Topic No. 1 this week at Morgan Stanley's annual technology conference in Arizona. The major Internet companies are expected to make presentations. Meeker remains optimistic on the Internet stocks for the long term, but she says investors should be prepared for a wild ride: "I'd be shocked if we didn't see a lot of volatility in 1999." So would we. --Andrew Bary

To: larry who wrote (16800)	1/2/1999 1:57:00 PM
From: tonyt	Respond to of 27307

Barrons: "There's apt to be plenty of action in the tech sector this week because Morgan Stanley will be holding its annual technology conference in Arizona. About 100 companies will make presentations, including such highfliers as Yahoo, America Online, eBay, and Amazon.com. Given the run-up in the Internet stocks, investors will be hanging on any indication from the companies about the strength of their fourth-quarter sales and any projections for 1999. Some 600 institutional investors are slated to attend what could be the hottest conference of the year."

To: larry who wrote (16800)	1/2/1999 2:18:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 27307

Thanx. I have been longing AOL for a long time. And YHOO!, ONSL, CMGI lately, even AMZN occasionally. I do believe that the internet is a great revolution but am worried that the ridiculous valuation (blame me on bringing out valuation, supposedly a 31-year old guy like me should be cool enough not to talk about valuation or Larry, I was not smart enough to go long AMZN and others only AOL. Your point is well taken. Glenn