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

To: Jim McMannis who wrote (45577)	1/27/1999 10:01:00 AM
From: csm	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

The benefit to shareholders will come in the increase of a few billion dollars in book value due to the holding in AV. What that translates into in terms of stock price is beyond me but I don't think it actually means squat. The news is that AV is going to be a market leader on the Internet and Compaq is going to be right in there with them but not holding them back. I'd love to have some shares in AV but I don't think I'm going to get (m)any. Anyway today's focus should be on the absolutely excellent performance of this company over the past 3 months and looking forward. Stuart.

To: Jim McMannis who wrote (45577)	1/27/1999 10:09:00 AM
From: rupert1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

I thought Mason's brief statement used language more understandable to the investment community than some used yesterday. 1. Alta Vista has already been incorporated as a company. It is this company which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of COMPAQ. 2. Alta Vista will gear up its operations in anticipation of an IPO. The date of the IPO will be determined by progress in getting ready, as well as the readiness of the market to buy the shares. 3. The equity structure of the new IPO has not been decided, although COMPAQ will retain a controlling share. Another way of saying this is that it is a "partial spin-off" - a minority proportion of the shares will be offered to the public. 4. The issue of whether COMPAQ shareholders will get shares in the new IPO has not been raised by the company. All the company has said is that the IPO will "unlock shareholder value". This would be the case if the IPO raises billions of dollars to grow a publicly traded Alta Vista in which COMPAQ owns a controlling interest. There are very good shareholder-friendly reasons for not giving COMPAQ shareholders shares in the new IPO. The more shares available to the public, the more dollars COMPAQ can raise. Also, it may be necessary to give shares to some large content providers. 5. Mason's words and body language when he said he was comfortable with the estimates of the investment community for this year, made it clear that COMPAQ wll exceed those estimates comfortably and suggested he agreed with the Paine Webber analysis that estimates of $1.75 represetn a serious underestiamte of the value of the company.