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

To: Stockwizard who wrote (302)	1/18/1999 3:40:00 AM
From: neverenough	Respond to of 803

From BANCBOSTON ROBERTSON STEPHENS Keith E. Benjamin, CFA - 415-693-3285 keith_benjamin@rsco.com January 15, 1999 TMCS: TicketMaster Online-CitySearch announced plans to buy CityAuction, a local online auction site. CityAuction has approximately 47,000 registered users and receives approximately 100,000 page views per day. We view this acquisition as significant in that it allows TMCS to extend its local offerings to include local auctions. Selling tickets online was the first of many expected commerce initiatives for CitySearch, and we believe CityAuction marks another step towards CitySearch's goal of becoming the definitive source for local Web content and activity. Leveraging CitySearch's large local audience, City Auction may have a competitive jump on eBay, which has not yet provided localized service. For example, if you were to buy a heavy item, such as a couch or big screen television set, it would make much more sense to buy it locally, in order to avoid significant shipping expenses. In addition, if you decide to purchase something expensive, such as a car, we believe you would want to be able to see the item and maybe even test drive it before making a final decision. CitySearch also pre-announced revenues of $13.6M, compared to our estimate of $9.4M, with most of the upside coming from higher ad sales and a faster shift of ticket sales to the Web, with overall ticket sales being helped by the Rolling Stones tour and other events. In addition, we believe the reinstatement of the NBA season should help TMCS due to the fact that TicketMaster is the exclusive ticket sale provider for several of the teams. We believe CitySearch has moved to the top tier of Web stocks, based on the recognition of its leadership position in local Web offerings. We believe the market opportunity as measured by newspaper valuations ranging from $4B to $20B is large enough to justify the company's market capitalization.