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To: Alan Cassaro who wrote (6420)	3/23/1999 4:21:00 AM
From: flickerful	Respond to of 17679

Yahoo in talks to buy Broadcast.com Posted at 1:08 a.m. PST Tuesday, March 23, 1999 Reuters PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Yahoo! Inc. is in talks to buy the online video company Broadcast.com in a deal that would help the popular Internet portal meet the growing demand for media-rich services like film and audio clips, sources close to the company said Monday. Although both companies declined to comment, citing corporate policy, speculation over the deal sent shares of Dallas-based Broadcast.com sharply higher. The stock was the biggest gaining issue on the Nasdaq Monday, rising $31.50 a share to $116.50. Yahoo shares finished down $5 at $165 after initially bouncing higher on the reports. Late Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online issue that Yahoo was considering paying up to $120 a share, or about $4.1 billion, for Broadcast.com, which went public in July. Source close to Yahoo said the company could announce an agreement to buy Broadcast.com within days, but added that the large price tag on the deal might still derail it. Broadcast.com, another Internet company that is losing money, is valued at about $1.8 billion, based on its closing price Monday. Still, analysts said the deal appeared to make sense since it could extend Yahoo's audience and help keep it competitive as more of its rivals offer faster, flashier services. Broadcast.com delivers a range of streaming video clips from news to concerts to lingerie fashion shows. Reports of the possible acquisition first appeared in Business Week's online edition, which said executives of Yahoo had met with Dallas-based Broadcast.com, but that NBC and America Online might also be interested in acquiring the company. NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., also owns a stake in another Internet service, Snap.com, which is aggressively beefing up its content with film, audio tapes and interactive games. Although Yahoo is the most popular Internet portal, it faces constant challenges holding onto that lead and finding new ways to grow. Critics say that its content, mostly in printed word format, has been looking more humdrum against new services that rivals are offering. Michael Murphy, who edits the California Technology Stock Letter, said an acquisition of Broadcast.com might be an especially effective way for Yahoo to reach new Internet users, since it has not yet focused on delivering the kind of media- rich content Broadcast.com specializes in. ''Yahoo has stated really clearly that their strategy is just to increase traffic,'' Murphy said. Broadcast.com runs video on popular news, entertainment and sporting events 24 hours a day and has featured several widely watched events like President Clinton's testimony in the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Victoria's Secret Internet fashion show. Most Internet users still can not access this video easily. To do so they need broadband or high-speed access to the Internet, which makes it possible to deliver media rich services. But the ranks of consumers who have broadband access are growing fast and constitute a market that can not be ignored for long. AtHome Corp., which delivers high-speed Internet access to home consumers through broadband cable television lines, expects to have one million subscribers by the end of the year. AtHome is also purchasing Yahoo rival Excite Inc., in a deal that will likely give media-rich services like video a higher profile on the Internet. And Snap.com Monday unveiled a complete overhaul of its online service, which now compiles an assortment of rich-media content. Snap's new service will enable users to search for audio and video clips online the way they currently search for printed word content and provides a glimpse of how the Internet is evolving. ''Everybody has to prepare for the oncoming market of broadband,'' said Abhishek Gami, an analyst at William Blair and Co. in Chicago. ''And Broadcast.com has the biggest and best streaming media site.'' While the price of Broadcast.com could give potential buyers pause, Yahoo's own rapidly ascending stock gives it a lot of buying power. If Yahoo were to acquire Broadcast.com, it would most likely pay with stock, as it did earlier this year with its $4.6 billion purchase of the Internet community Geocities.

To: Alan Cassaro who wrote (6420)	3/23/1999 11:17:00 AM
From: digger	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17679

LOL AL, Trying to regain my focus here. A little bored last night (could ya tell?) just trying to break up the tension a bit. The news release puts AENTV with some big names, Fox, MSNBC, Warner Bros., CNNI, NBA, and others as one of the "great sites" - except for the few new items that I mention previously they really have no current live events, active or scheduled? (that we know of) This continues to be puzzling to me. Wonder if will see something "BIG" soon from Mr. Hollywood? Cheers, digger