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Technology Stocks : CMGI What is the latest news on this stock? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SJS who wrote (5959)	3/13/1999 5:59:00 PM
From: B. A. Marlow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19700

So what put strikes, months are you looking at, SJS? Might do that, too, but thought it opportunistic to grab some calls first. BAM

To: SJS who wrote (5959)	3/14/1999 2:08:00 AM
From: peter xutra	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19700

New offers for Lcos may come soon! According to a piece in Boston Globe, there are at least four companies very interested in submitting rival bids for lcos. Here it is: CMGI can block Lycos deal Chief says major investors feel price too low By Ross Kerber, Globe Staff, 03/13/99 he largest shareholder in Lycos Inc., the Waltham Internet portal, said yesterday that he has rallied enough dissident investors to block the Internet firm's proposed merger with elements of USA Networks Inc. David Wetherell, chief executive of CMGI Inc., the Andover-based venture capital firm, said in an interview yesterday that almost every other large institutional investor in Lycos shares his view that the deal doesn't value the portal's shares sufficiently. Based on those conversations, ''We've received ample evidence that if a vote were held today, it would not pass,'' Wetherell said. Earlier this week he resigned from Lycos' board and vowed to work against the completion of the present deal. Wetherell's CMGI now holds the single largest stake in Lycos, with about 18.5 percent of total shares outstanding. Wetherell said he has spoken with major fund managers who represent an additional 24.5 percent of the company's shares and said that none of them would support the present agreement either. Wetherell said at least four other parties have expressed an interest in assembling a rival bid for Lycos, though he declined to name them. Industry observers say likely candidates include General Electric Co.'s NBC broadcast unit, CBS Corp., and Time Warner Inc. CMGI also could purchase Lycos outright with its own stock, or structure a more complex arrangement. Representatives of USA Networks and Lycos declined to comment on Wetherell's remarks. Lycos executives could not be reached for comment. Earlier yesterday, both companies reiterated their expectation to complete the agrement under its terms announced Feb. 9. According to Wetherell, a vote could take place up to four months from now. Under the terms of the agreement, Lycos said it would merge with elements of USA Networks Inc., the New York company controlled by broadcast veteran Barry Diller. Major units of the company include the Home Shopping Network and the Ticketmaster event-seating service. As a board member of Lycos and one of its earliest investors, Wetherell had voted for the deal, though he now says he did so with reservations. But after the agreement was announced Lycos shares plunged from 137 to as low as 83 as investors realized the terms didn't value the search engine with the same premiums that other so-called Internet ''portal'' sites, such as the Netscape and InfoSeek services, had received in their own recent mergers. Officials at Lycos have continued to support the proposal, arguing that the agreement will provide the portal site with substantial revenue it can use to build new electronic commerce services. Wetherell said he had tried to renegotiate the terms with Diller in early February to account for the decline, but that the head of USA Networks rejected the suggestion. According to Wetherell, Diller said Internet stocks are overvalued and that he didn't wish to lose money in a possible downturn. But Wetherell said that Diller doesn't appreciate how the rapid growth of the Internet justifies far higher stock multiples than media companies have traditionally received. By the same token, Wetherell said the agreement put too high a valuation on Diller's own USA Networks, relative to Lycos. According to Wetherell, the agreement values the Lycos network at around $6 billion - about $1.5 billion less than the smaller portal Excite Inc. received in a stock deal in January. As the last major portal site without an alliance Wetherell said, Lycos should command a far higher premium. ''We really believe that Lycos is worth far more, because it's the last kingmaker left among all the portals.'' Wetherell said. ''I have a great deal of respect for Diller and what he's accomplished,'' Wetherell said. ''But this has everything to do with the economics. We disagree.'' This story ran on page A09 of the Boston Globe on 03/13/99. © Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.