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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steven N who wrote (45419)	1/26/1999 11:18:00 PM
From: Steven N	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

AltaVista details plans to recover lost Web glory Reuters Story - January 26, 1999 22:34 By Eric Auchard NEW YORK, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Compaq Computer Corp.'s soon-to-be independent AltaVista Internet business on Tuesday revealed an aggressive strategy to regain its status as one of the Internet's most visited sites by reinventing itself as a hybrid online retailer and quick Web search system. AltaVista, once one of the top destinations on the Web, has seen its lead slide in the last year or two amid a nose-dive in the fortunes of its former parent, Digital Equipment, and the distraction of Digital's acquisition by Compaq last year. Rivals like Yahoo! Inc. , America Online Inc. , Lycos Inc. , Netscape , Microsoft and Excite Inc. used AltaVista's distractions as an opportunity to change themselves into more diversified catch-all Internet media sites and become the Web's most popular destinations. By contrast, AltaVista, which until recently had redoubled its focus on its core Web navigation features, saw its Web site ranking slip to 12th in a survey of December Internet traffic. But Tuesday, AltaVista said it had begun to regain its footing thanks to Compaq's evolving sense of mission for the Internet business and the computer maker's recent investments in its future. At a news conference in New York, Rod Schrock, the newly named president and chief executive of AltaVista set out ambitious goals to propel the company into the ranks of the top 3 Web sites in revenue terms by the end of 2002. In the coming months, he said AltaVista plans to integrate its existing fast and easy-to-use Web search technologies, a new AltaVista Mail service based on Microsoft's Hotmail free e-mail service, Shopping.com's online retailing and the My.AltaVista.com personalization services. As evidence that AltaVista has regained its footing, Shrock said the number of Web pages viewed on the AltaVista site grew 43 percent in December from September. Revenues grew 64 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the third quarter and 158 percent versus the fourth quarter of 1997. Shrock said AltaVista's momentum had accelerated since the Jan. 9 launch of its My.AltaVista.com site, which allows Compaq home computer users to customize their Internet use to locate a relevant personal information Web. The personalization service has had 17 million visitors in its first month and has displaced MyYahoo.com, the most visited location on AltaVista in 1998. MyAltaVista.com will be extended to all AltaVista users in coming months. In order to meet its goal of becoming the most visited site on the World Wide Web, the AltaVista executive said his company planned to differentiate itself by promising the "fastest to time to relevant results" on the Web. "AltaVista will deliver the relevant results you need faster and more efficiently than anyone else on the Internet," he promised. By the end of 2002, AltaVista will be among the top 5 Web sites most visited by Internet users with high-speed Internet connections, thanks to its ties to Compaq, which has aggressive plans to promote broadband Web use among home computer buyers. Compaq, the No. 1 personal computer maker, sells one out of three PCs sold to U.S. home computer users, he noted. The computer maker will extend a special keyboard connection that connects Compaq home PC users directly to AltaVista across all Compaq PC lines, including its commercial brands, this year, Compaq officials promised. Since last summer, Compaq has shipped millions of consumer PCs with one-button access to AltaVista's site, in effect locking in a huge and growing base of repeat Web visitors and potential online shoppers.