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Strategies & Market Trends : Bill Wexler's Profits of DOOM -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Wexler who wrote (4257)	1/27/1999 7:42:00 AM
From: Oblivious	Respond to of 4634

Bill, I saw this and thought you would be interested. MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 1999-- Top Retailer To Sell Downloadable Software For The First Time Digital River (Nasdaq:DRIV), the leading distributor in electronic software delivery with over 131,000 software titles from over 1,300 publishers, today announced a significant new distribution partnership with CompUSA, one of the nation's leading retailers and resellers of personal computers and related products and services. For the first time, CompUSA will be able to offer a wide range of downloadable software products electronically from its online store, in addition to traditional boxed software products. "As part of our goal of being a total solutions provider, we want to be a part of the emerging electronic software delivery trend, which offers Internet shoppers the choice of downloading software directly onto their desktops," said Jim Halpin, CompUSA president and chief executive officer. "We chose software e-commerce provider Digital River because of their technological leadership and extensive database of downloadable software products that will meet the diverse needs of our Internet customers." "We are extremely excited to partner with the leading retail technology powerhouse, CompUSA, which had sales of over $5 billion last year," added Joel Ronning, chief executive officer of Digital River. "We believe that our relationship with one of the world's largest retailers of technology products will present our database of software to a much broader audience and will accelerate the trend of people buying and downloading software over the Internet." About CompUSA CompUSA Inc. is one of the nation's leading retailers and resellers of personal computers and related products and services. The company currently operates 210 CompUSA Computer Superstores in 79 major metropolitan markets across the United States that serve retail, corporate, government and education customers and include technical service departments and classroom training facilities. CompUSA also offers its own build-to-order personal computer series, the CompUSA PC, and operates an Internet Web site located at compusa.com where customers can obtain company information and shop its 50,000-item on-line catalog. About Digital River(a) Digital River, Inc. (Nasdaq: DRIV), based in Minneapolis, offers the world's largest online database of software products. The company provides more than 2,000 software publishers and online retailers with its proprietary technology for Internet delivery of more than 131,000 software and other digital products. For more information visit the Digital River Web site at digitalriver.com. (a) Except for the historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements containing the words, "believes," "anticipates,"

To: Bill Wexler who wrote (4257)	1/27/1999 7:49:00 PM
From: Bill Wexler	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 4634

To all concerned about CPU. I've been receiving a lot of PMs from nervous investors worried about CPU tanking. Can it go lower? You bet! I have no magic way of picking exact tops and bottoms. If I could, I wouldn't bother picking stocks, I'd simply buy lottery tickets. My buy recommendation of CPU is based on my opinion that the company's problems are not life-threatening and that management has shown a consistent ability to keep reinventing the company as the retailing environment faces new challenges - coupled with their excellent insider buying/selling record. I felt CPU was cheap at 13 and 14. It is cheaper now and - of course - can continue drifting down. However, nothing has changed my opinion about what will happen to this company longer-term. I maintain my strong buy recommendation on the stock. If it hits the single digits, I will average down my own position. If you are terribly nervous then I would recommend selling calls/leaps as a hedge (not really worth it to buy puts at this point). An interesting trade would be to sell the Jan. 2001 25 Leaps (ZWPAE) at around 2. My reasoning is as follows - if the company were sold tomorrow I couldn't see it going for less than 25 a share, in the meantime - should the company stay in the doghouse for another 2 or 3 quarters - the time decay on the leaps would make the waiting a bit more bearable.