As Investors take a serious look at Internet IPO's, now is the time to make a statement on "what and when you plan to go public".
If you just say your building a portal..........., God said; "They will come !".
IF FNet is to release itself from the clutches of FTel, its now that a sense of stability and soundness needs to be established. It is why a company like FNet goes public, and that is....... to set a course of profitability for the shareholders, establish itself as a leader in the path it has chosen, and move forward.
In some fashion or another, I can understand why FNet has yet to IPO. There really isn't a definite course, to pull anchor and head directly into. You can't establish yourself as a long-distance carrier to carry just minutes. There's more to Internet-Protocol than just packets. Internet Service Stations as Portals are being formed.
What is a little mystifying at this time of anticipation, is the fact that FNet really doesn't have a niche for investors "today" that will accept an IP-Offering of $10+ dollars.
Lets ask a reverse question; what would FNet being doing if there were not a parent company like FTel? Good question, huh?
But dwelling on the subject of a nich IPO, this is what the gang at FNet should be working on right now. But understand, its not going to be building a global network. If it were to be a global network, there would be more than just signs of splattering a few countries.
Ask yourself this; If you had three years to build a company strong enough to invite the best of the best, 'underwriters' into the fold, wouldn't that be enough time to come up with a plan?
Well anyway, I really just wanted to focus on a "niche" idea for the coming IPO sometime soon. and got off the subject <g>.
So with the market hot over internet-portals, the right niche for FNet is possibly this. What sector out there within the Internet-Portals like Yahoo.com, Broadcast.com, Athome.com, Amazon.com, have yet to open up to the public in large fashion, make the statement that the buck stops here?
Its the banks my friends, the banks have yet to function properly as an all-encompassing web-portal leading from, or to your Internet home-base.
Why couldn't FNet work closely with a local bank (but big enough name to recognize) in Westlake, or in the general vicinity of LA. A banking facility that has 2 or 3 million customers waiting for a personal web-site detailing all their account info for banking, shopping, phone service, news-links, internet service. Why shouldn't a bank be involved with its customers through an internet access account setup through them via FNet. Access to all personal information of bank transactions, long distance phone bill, unified messages including fax's, email, etc. etc. Given the right marketing plan, bank, FNet services, this is an all-encompassing "niche" for a very pleasant IPO of FNet.
I know its more than we should ask for, but I didn't get what I wanted for Christmas anyway, so why not ask away !! <gg>
Why not work with AOL, how many reasons can we come up with here. Like I said earlier, Qwest-AOL-Netscape, talk about a power-portal in the making. Just give me their coat-tail to cling to for awhile, I'll be happy, I promise !!
Portal sites are a way to gather information, services, and products in one convenient place on the Internet. Starting at a place where there are 1st, allot of people from the start. Bank?, ah what? <gg>
www3.zdnet.com
Checkout the subheading listed there, then let your mind wonder a bit.
But portals are more than just gateways or doorways to a collection of things. They also provide directories, search engines, and other services to help people locate what they're trying to find. Portals are now providing a lot of services, such as free email, stock quotes, and personalization(bank-phone-andyounametherest <g> Its all aimed to keep keep visitors coming back, and subscribers happy campers knowing the service is great.
Netscape of course has a major portal on the Internet called Netcenter, which reaches more than eight to nine million individuals every day. Wow !
Having FNet linked to a major backer like a bank-portal, it would be a convenient place like I said for consumers to find goods and services. It would also be a great place for businesses to find customers. Hell, to top it off, the portal companies themselves are discovering important new revenue opportunities through partnership deals, advertising revenue, and transaction fees. All in all, business to consumer commerce on portals has taken off - and it seems very profitable.
If you just say your building a portal..........., God said; "They will come !".
In addition to the business-to-consumer side of portals, we're starting to see portals organize information, services, and products for enterprises, why couldn't FNet.
There in a very unique situation here, according to Roger Moore, they just don't know it.
They should be creating new business-to-business trading networks that link's up FNet's network supply and distribution chain to others.
Look at Citicorp, their building a high-performance infrastructure so the company can easily connect with new customers amd also interconnect all of its systems with its business partners, and their systems. As Frank C. would put it, its the layering of e-commerce apps on top of the infrastructure that would make for an ESP (enterprise-service-provider).
Partners, customers, suppliers all within the same food-chain. <gg>
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With example, after example, we see the convergence of Enterprise Service Providers, and the making of web-portals.
The opportunities are there to get connected if we so chose, or so dream of !
wondering-temp' |
