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To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (53215)	3/13/1999 9:21:00 AM
From: Kenya AA	Respond to of 97611

*OT* The Sunshine on Dell's Shoulders By Christi Dunn Special to TheStreet.com 03/13/99 01:42 AM ET Michael Dell with Catherine Fredman, Direct From Dell. Strategies that Revolutionized an Industry, HarperBusiness, 1999, 236 pages. A couple of weeks before Direct from Dell hit bookstores on March 1, Dell Computer (DELL:Nasdaq) found itself in hot water with shareholders. The PC maker had been growing at a 50% clip for so long that shareholders had come to expect it. When Dell announced a mere 38% increase in annual revenue, some were so disappointed they dumped Dell. The company's stock price catapulted to about $80 from about $109. (Dell has since had a two-for-one stock split.) By the end of the first week of this month, much appeared to have been forgiven, thanks to IBM (IBM:NYSE) and the U.S. economy. On March 4, Dell and IBM announced a deal in which Dell agreed to buy $16 billion in IBM equipment over the next seven years. The next day, a federal labor report showed that the economy wasn't heating up as fast as some predicted, so there was no reason for the Fed to raise interest rates anytime soon. As stock indexes rose to record highs on March 5, Dell rode the crest as the most-traded stock of the day. Given that the price-to-earnings ratio for Dell's stock has been so high for some time, skeptics might assume Direct from Dell may be CEO Michael Dell's attempt to reassure jittery shareholders. But that's really not the case. It is obvious that Dell, 34, wrote this book for budding entrepreneurs who want to be like Mike -- an icon of the high-tech world who has lived every geek's dream. It is an engaging and worthwhile account of how, starting 15 years ago as a college freshman with $1,000 in capital, Dell built an international powerhouse that reported $18 billion in sales for its last fiscal year. (Only Compaq Computer (CPQ:NYSE) sells more PCs.) With help from co-author Catherine Fredman (who also helped Intel Chairman Andrew Grove write his treatise Only the Paranoid Survive), Dell keeps the tone conversational but manages to be instructional. The book, divided into two parts, covers the history of Dell Computer and Dell's common-sense management philosophy. To the book's credit, the main thing missing is a Gates-sized ego. (Dell doesn't seem to have one.) The book also delivers directly what it promises. To its detriment, the book is so sunny that at times it seems unbelievable. Also, if you're expecting any significant insight into Dell the man, you'll be disappointed. The few personal stories in Dell's book don't reveal a whole lot about him -- except for his precocious brilliance. In the one chapter Dell devotes to himself, he talks about how he defied the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to be a doctor, by spending most his time in his University of Texas dorm room upgrading PCs. After his freshman year, he dropped out of college to pursue his business -- PC's Limited -- full time. The anecdotes Dell does offer illustrate his mantra: eliminate Unnecessary steps. He has built his company by cutting out the middleman and selling directly to computer users. Dell recognized the potential of the Internet early on, and his company says it is now selling $14 million worth of products a day in cyberspace. While the book is mainly a management text, there are some nods to shareholders. In the last chapter, Dell answers the question, "So just how does a company like Dell sustain its growth?" Let him count the ways: "We created what we believe is the smartest way to buy and own a PC," he writes. Dell Computer continues to add new products like desktops, servers and workstations, services like leasing, and markets like China and South America, Dell expounds. The book's bottom line: Expect hyper-growth. It's a hard image for Dell Computer, or any other company, to live up to every year, as Dell's recent stock hit showed. But there is much more in this book than Michael Dell's irrepressible optimism -- in the end, it is contagious -- to convince readers that Dell is primed for the Internet age. Christi Dunn is a Houston-based financial writer. Previously, she was a high-tech business reporter for The Tribune in Phoenix, business editor of the Democrat-Gazette in Arkansas, and editor of the San Antonio Business Journal and the San Diego Business Journal. TheStreet.com has a revenue-sharing relationship with Amazon.com under which it receives a portion of the revenue from Amazon.com purchases by customers directed there from TheStreet.com.

To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (53215)	3/13/1999 9:24:00 AM
From: Kenya AA	Respond to of 97611

*OT* TokyoJoe Part 3 .... SEC's Latest Crackdown Has Touters Guessing Who's Next By Gregg Wirth Staff Reporter for theStreet.com 03/12/99 04:07 PM ET Today, it's "TokyoMex." Tomorrow, who knows? The news that TokyoMex, a popular online stock picker whose real name is Yun Soo Oh Park, is being investigated by federal stock regulators has raised the inevitable question among Internet message posters: Who's next? Stock message boards and online chat rooms -- the roadside diners on the information superhighway where little separates hype, opinion and real news -- have spawned their own star system. The right stock pick or two can earn any online poster the label of "stock guru" and sometimes a legion of dedicated fans. Indeed, TokyoMex partially blamed his high profile for the Securities and Exchange Commission taking notice. So, when the SEC takes action against any well-known online personality, it reverberates throughout the Net, says Tod Pauly, an avid message board follower and a self-described cybersleuth. "Anybody that feels they are doing something wrong or are on the edge, once they see the SEC activity -- you're darn right they're worried," Pauly says. And TokyoMex is far from being the only stock picker online. Other so-called gurus, such as "Whiz Kid," "Lion Master," "KingFine" and "Mr. Pink," have become part of the stock chat room phenomenon. Often housing vitriolic message board battles and stock-hyping controversies, the online message boards resemble the Wild West before Wyatt Earp rode into Tombstone. Almost every message board includes threats by some message posters to turn others over to the SEC. "Money has been lost not just by the retail investor who held on to his short-term picks too long, but the pros are nervous," writes one message poster called Osprey on a Silicon Investor thread called "Short Term Picks from the 'Whiz' Kid" earlier this week. "I would like to know how many pros have cried foul to the SEC? I bet there are a lot." Good bet. The SEC sees a surge of emails to its online complaint department after an enforcement action in an Internet stock fraud case, says John Stark, head of Internet enforcement in the SEC's division of enforcement. (Stark says he could neither confirm nor deny the existence of any SEC investigation of TokyoMex.) "You can't bring every case, so it's best to send out real messages with the cases you do bring," says Stark. Last October, the commission undertook its first SWAT-team approach to a sweep of the Internet, which resulted in actions against 44 individuals. Earlier this year, the SEC continued to crack down on pump-and-dump schemes and illegal stock touting on the Internet in two separate busts. The SEC suspended trading in six bulletin board stocks, saying it had concerns over the accuracy of information about the companies being tossed around on the Internet. The SEC followed that up a few weeks later by bringing enforcement actions against 13 more individuals. Overall, the commission has brought 66 cases involving Internet stock fraud or manipulation since 1995. For a few days after an announced SEC action, emailed complaints spike to as high as 800 to 900 messages a day, Stark says. That's not counting a surge in backslapping messages applauding the SEC for taking action, he adds. The SEC normally averages from 200 to 300 emails a day from consumers and investors. More important, regulators also have noticed that when they bring an enforcement action, there is a reverberation effect. For example, when the SEC turned its attention on stock touters -- those who recommend or hype a stock without disclosing that they are being paid to do so -- other online touters who weren't caught in any criminal sweep offered more disclosure about their relationships with the companies that were paying them. "I don't think it's anecdotal -- I think we are seeing tangible results out there," Stark says. "We're focused on the three S's -- sweeps, SWAT teams and suspensions." For the moment, the more proactive regulatory environment is keeping posters guessing as to what the SEC knows and when it will take action.