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Non-Tech : E*Trade (NYSE:ET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mod who wrote (5225)	2/17/1999 12:05:00 AM
From: Tom Hua	Respond to of 13953

Dow Jones Newswires ETrade Says Two Class Action Suits Filed In February Dow Jones Newswires NEW YORK -- Individual investors filed two class action suits against ETrade Group Inc. (EGRP) in February, the online brokerage said Tuesday in a 10-Q filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission. ETrade said that on Feb. 11, Evan Berger filed a suit in the Supreme Court of New York in Manhattan on behalf of himself and other individuals. That follows the previously reported Feb. 8 filing of a class action suit by Coleen Divito on behalf of herself and other individuals in the Superior Court of California in Santa Clara. ETrade said in the filing that both suits allege that the company's advertising, communications and business practices regarding its ability to timely execute and confirm transactions through its online brokerage services were false and deceptive. The company also said that it believes "the claims are without merit and intends to defend against them vigorously." A class action suit filed on Nov. 21, 1997, in the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara, by Larry Cooper is still pending against the Palo Alto, Calif., company. ETrade also said in the filing that it expected to spend an additional $4 million on compliance costs related to the year 2000. ETrade said it spent about $1 million during the first quarter of fiscal 1999. ETrade said that during the first quarter, order flow rebates paid to the company by the Nasdaq market makers in return for receiving its business totaled $8 million. That was up from $6.8 million a year earlier but down as a percentage of overall revenue to 13% from 18% in that same year-ago period. ETrade said that was due to no longer accounting for revenue from its stake in Knight/Trimark Group Inc. (NITE) as order flow rebates. -Caroline Humer; 201-938 5234; caroline.humer@cor.dowjones.com

To: mod who wrote (5225)	2/17/1999 12:16:00 AM
From: Oeconomicus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13953

White-shoe firms? OK, so perhaps EGRP deserves a higher P/B or P/E multiple than JC Bradford, but EGRP is still a stock broker. How 'bout white sneakers? Still, my point was that the internet was, over the last few years, growing from a tiny handful of users to many tens of millions. You can't compare that explosive growth, the birth of a whole new industry, to the growth prospects of the brokerage business (or even just the online part of it) from this point forward. BTW, did you know Citibank Investment Services offers (or soon will, I haven't had a chance to check it out) online trading for as low as $19.95 per trade? Did you know this service is tied into their online banking service which is about to kick off a major promotional campaign with the launch of their new financial portal site? Just thought you might want to consider that the competition isn't just old white-shoe firms or other online firms like AMTD. It is people with much bigger ambitions and resources than EGRP. Bob