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

To: Dophano who wrote (49585)	2/25/1999 9:24:00 AM
From: rupert1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

I read the article. I think the author was right to raise questions about Schrock's suitability to head up AV, for all the reasons he gave. He was right to say that the project lacked the same kind of visionary zeal which is characteristic of other internet portals such as AOL or Yahoo. He was right to suggest that AV is being cobbled together as though by a committe of consultants and right that it is probably paying a premium for some of the acquistions. He was also right to say that it is second best to use MSFT's hotmail e-mail and the yet-to-be-announced instant messages instead of developing its own. I think the original DEC AV search engine is the quality component in the package - and trust that it is being developed and enhanced by CPQ. CPQ has taken a cynical view, in my opinion. It has decided that time is of the essence. It wants to steal a march on competitors and put flesh on the concept of itself as an Internet company. So it simply wants to get critical mass as quickly as possible and rely on the rather uncritical IPO internet market to overlook the weakness in the scheme. The cash being drained from the balance sheet now will be balanced by the inflated value of AV assets once the IPO is launched. Presumably, existing agreements with MSFT and others, will not prevent AV developing its own e-mail and other services, and putting right in the long-term what is wrong with the design of AV in the short-term. My main concern is that without a driving, creative and truly entrepreneurial leadership steeped in the internet "tradition" it will simply not be able to compete effectively with the other major portals which have got up such a head of steam.