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To: D. Swiss who wrote (49287)	2/23/1999 2:23:00 PM
From: Kenya AA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Hey Drew ... I was wondering where you were. What's your take on the GTW analysts' meeting tomorrow??? I like Dogway just fine. It's just one of those "so many stocks going up, so little cash" scenarios. I LIKE IT!!! K

To: D. Swiss who wrote (49287)	2/23/1999 2:31:00 PM
From: Kenya AA	Respond to of 97611

OT Robbie Stephens Conference: Glitches Can't Stop Glaser By TSC Staff 2/22/99 9:00 PM ET SAN FRANCISCO -- Sometimes, you gotta hate technology. The second that RealNetworks (RNWK:Nasdaq) CEO Rob Glaser began touting his company's technology leadership at the BancBoston Robertson Stephens Tech '99 Conference Monday, the slides on the room's video screen went berserk, flashing on and off, disintegrating into a jumble of unreadable gobbledygook. BancBoston analyst John Powers glared at the screen, while a tech support geek tried to remedy the glitch as the standing-room only crowd fidgeted. Glaser, employing his trademark staccato delivery, tried to keep things running with a quip, joking that RealNetworks are the "first people to deliver streaming slides." The problems continued throughout the presentation. It was a distraction to an otherwise lackluster spiel. One newsworthy factoid demonstrating the strength of RealNetworks' sofware: Glaser said that as of this past December RealNetworks had sold over 1 million copies of its new PlayerPlus. Perhaps the most salient scrap of news came when Glaser said that RealNetworks plans to commercialize the channel guide of the RealPlayer, RealNetwork's streaming software that controls 85% of the streaming media market. "We see increasing opportunity to monetize that," said Glaser, who noted that the guide's main purpose is to promote RealNetworks' content partners. "We'll be pursuing both opportunities as the year moves forward." The other highlight of the presentation was unrelated to RealNetwork's business. As a demonstration of the RealPlayer's high-bandwidth streaming capabilities, Glaser staged a demo from the new Star Wars trailer. The audience seemed generally soothed as lush pictures of alien landscapes and racing battle ships flowed across the screen. But then the glitch struck again and Glaser returned to his fast-paced pitch. Walking into an elevator after the presentation, one money manager offered John Powers some advice: "You guys need to get some new slides." -- Spencer E. Ante Sun's NC Rises Again The network may be the computer for Sun Microsystems (SUNW:Nasdaq), but its own much-hyped network computer product is still sitting quietly on the sidelines. Steve McGowan, vice president of finance for Sun's computer systems division, said shortly after his Monday presentation at the BancBoston tech conference that a third "NC" version was coming out around June. Some of its bigger corporate clients -- McGowan declined to say who -- are showing renewed interest in the project. Meanwhile, the rest of Sun's operations are running more smoothly. McGowan said its enterprise services division saw revenues grow 38% year over year in its second fiscal quarter ended December 1998 -- a faster growth rate than any other Sun unit. "We expect to continue to add personnel to this division, especially to our professional part," said McGowan. In terms of the America Online (AOL:NYSE) acquisition of Netscape (NSCP:Nasdaq), which is expected to be completed by the end of next month, McGowan told a rather sparse crowd that the deal would be neutral to Sun's earnings in the first year after the deal's consummation and will add to earnings after that. McGowan also suggested that Sun would take 1.5 percentage points out of its selling, general and administrative expenses over the next two quarters -- they currently stand at 27% of revenues. Opeating margins, which hit a high of 13.5% in the latest quarter, will also fatten thanks to increased revenue growth. Dan Niles, BancBoston Robertson Stephens' PC and semi analyst, said Sun's third quarter looks encouraging. Sun's guidance of 18% to 20% year-over-year revenue growth in its third and fourth quarters hasn't changed. -- Eric Moskowitz Turnaround for VLSI? From wired to wireless. That is what VLSI Technology (VLSI:Nasdaq) is banking on for future growth. Chief executive officer Alfred Stein told investors at the BancBoston tech conference that that VLSI would participate in the top three wireless technologies. That will be especially significant if, as Stein predicts, "wireless is slowly replacing wired infrastructure and becoming a pervasive technology." Stein also said the company has been gaining market share and that the outlook for the communications chip company is better now than what he would have predicted in the fourth quarter of 1998. But some investors remain wary. In 1998, the company missed earnings forecasts after losing some orders from major customers, including wireless phone maker Ericsson (ERICY:Nasdaq ADR). It also laid off staff and had a chief operating officer resign. In the December quarter, VLSI posted a profit of 31 cents a share, up from a loss of 8 cents in the previous quarter, but down from 45 cents in the same quarter a year before. "They sound like they are turning around with some new products, but the question will be how much of these products are proprietary and [how much] people will pay up for them," said one Bay Area-based fund manager. "Their gross margins are still low for a chip company." -- Medora Lee

To: D. Swiss who wrote (49287)	2/23/1999 2:34:00 PM
From: Kenya AA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

OT Robbie Stephens Conference: Sterling Gets Some Respect By TSC Staff 2/23/99 10:10 AM ET SAN FRANCISCO -- E-commerce software company Sterling Commerce (SE:NYSE) looks sterling to most investors at the BancBoston Robertson Stephens Tech '99 Conference, nearly filling a Ritz-Carlton ballroom at its presentation Monday. Investors eager to participate in the Internet craze, but not so eager to pay the lofty valuations of something like an Amazon.com (AMZN:Nasdaq), are finding Sterling particularly attractive because its stock tumbled earlier this month to the lowest level since October. The stock drop was due to weaker-than-expected software growth in the first quarter. The idea of an Internet stock that may be reasonably valued proved tempting to many investors. "It's an interesting company," said one fund manager who doesn't currently hold the stock, but who came to see if it might be worthwhile to grab some. What's so interesting? Sterling CFO Steven Shiflet said he's comfortable with Wall Street estimates of 35% to 36% revenue growth this year. Shiflet expects Sterling will maintain its 33% to 34% operating margins this year. He also emphasized huge growth in markets outside the U.S., saying that 21% of last year's revenue came from international sales. But there is one point that could tarnish Sterling's bullishness, some investors cautioned. "The company has a very high amount of capitalization of development costs," one Midwest-based fund manager said. Rather than expensing software development costs as many software companies do, Sterling accounts for the costs as an asset on the balance sheet and aggressively amortizes them over time. That helps keep margins high and supports earnings, fund managers said. -- Medora Lee Tailgate Entrepreneurship Anticipation is mounting for Intel's (INTC:Nasdaq) Merced chip for servers, a chip that will run on a revolutionary 64-bit architecture. But Intel expects the current 32-bit architecture to dominate the PC world for the foreseeable future. That's one nugget of information that Mike Aymar, vice president and director of Intel's platform launch division, gave money managers at a packed presentation at the BancBoston conference that largely recapped last Wednesday's Pentium III press launch. Aymar told fund managers that Pentium III-based computers will hit store shelves Friday. But the chip giant has been shipping P-3s to computer makers for two months, and savvy and overeager Intel fans have been able to get them from unauthorized channels. This led BancBoston analyst Dan Niles to joke to fund managers that for those who couldn't wait until Friday to buy their new P-3 based system, he'd be selling the systems out of the back of his car after the conference. -- Marcy Burstiner TI Strengthens DSP Line Texas Instruments (TXN:Nasdaq) has developed a new digital signal processor that doubles the speed of printers and will work across product lines, John Scarisbrick, senior vice president for finance, told money managers at the Tech '99 conference. The "xStream DSP" enables printers to print big jobs in seconds as opposed to minutes, he said. It is initially targeted to fit into business printers that sell for $2,000 and up. But TI hopes eventually to sell the chip for every printer made. There is no similar chip on the horizon, Scarisbrick said. He offered up the xStream as the latest in a line of new DSPs from TI that will help it solidify and lengthen its growing lead in the DSP market. TI, Scarisbrick said, now commands a market share that exceeds its top two competitors combined. -- Marcy Burstiner Hyperion's Titanic Clash Some money managers were hoping Hyperion Solutions (HYSL:Nasdaq) had finally gotten back on track after reporting a weak second quarter in January that pushed the stock down to the lowest level since October. But Edward Hemmelgarn, portfolio manager at Shaker Investments, attended the enterprise software company's breakout session and said the company did not show any signs of rebounding for at least two or three quarters. He said integrating the businesses of Hyperion and Arbor Software still needed time. Hyperion closed its merger with Arbor in August, but talk that the two companies are having major corporate clashes has dogged Hyperion stock. HYSL is down 55% since early December. But Hemmelgarn will keep an eye on Hyperion, saying that once it's over this hump, it could still eventually emerge as a winner in the software race. -- Medora Lee

To: D. Swiss who wrote (49287)	2/23/1999 2:36:00 PM
From: Kenya AA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

OT Robbie Stephens Conference: Infoseek Marketing Good to Go By TSC Staff 2/22/99 4:43 PM ET As the portal war heats up, Infoseek (SEEK:Nasdaq) is launching a marketing blitz and a new slew of e-commerce services that aim to keep the company competitive, the company's CFO Leslie Wright said Monday at the BancBoston Robertson Stephens Technology 99 Conference. The campaign, set to start in March, will include national TV spots, a Web banner blitzkrieg, promotions in movies, videos and theme parks -- even a billboard in Times Square. Infoseek touted this new campaign as the first fruits of its partnership with Disney (DIS:NYSE), which promised to fork over $165 million in promotion as part of the deal struck last year. "This is the right kind of partner to have in building brand," boasted Wright, who pointed out that Infoseek was the first Internet company to join hands with a old media juggernaut. After building its Go network brand with the Disneyfied marketing barrage, Infoseek will focus on rolling out a new round of e-commerce services, including an affinity program, an auction service and more partnerships with stores, Wright said. These services are designed to build on Go's current shopping site, which launched in January. "There's really no commerce in the revenue mix," said Wright, pointing to a slide that shows e-commerce accounted for about 4% of Infoseek's revenue. "That's what we're hoping to add in 1999." Despite Go's menu of leading brands, which includes ESPN.com, Mr. Showbiz and ABCNews.com, Wright said Infoseek's offering lacks one key item: a personal finance portal. "We're developing our own product now and looking for a potential partner," he hinted. -- Spencer E. Ante Quantum's Storage Story Quantum (QNTM:Nasdaq), the leading maker of hard disk drives, is drawing interest for its recent forays into data storage technologies. More than 60% of Quantum's revenues come from PC or hard-disk drives. Barbara Nelson, the general manager of Quantum's desktop and portables group, said Monday that four of the top five PC makers used Quantum's drives. The exception? Packard Bell, which had a 4% decline in year-over-year revenues last year. Nelson sees promise in the company's burgeoning storage business. "Right now, our Digital Linear Tape and tape automation business makes up 28% of revenues," she said, "and that's something we want to improve on." Critics have argued that Quantum, whose stock has fallen from 29 15/16 on Jan. 20 to below 20 Monday, has been overdependent on its lower-margin hard-disk drive business. Today, Nelson seemed to win over a crowd of skeptical money managers in attendance. "We are liking Quantum more and more because it is moving into the storage business faster than its competitors," said one money manager, who requested anonymity and has a long position in Quantum. --Eric Moskowitz What's My Name Again? Robbie Stephens has been changing allegiances so frequently lately that the West Coast research shop forgot to change its name in some presentation rooms. In Salon 2 of the swanky Ritz-Carlton, the teleprompter read: BancAmerica Robertson Stephens. It's the previous name before BancBoston bought Robbie Stephens last year. --Eric Moskowitz