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Technology Stocks : Ampex Corporation (AEXCA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: B. A. Marlow who wrote (6431)3/23/1999 9:36:00 AM
From: Paul Lee  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 17679
 
How many times can we post this
Ampex Internet Video Affiliate AENTV.com is Named to '10 Great' List

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 23, 1999--Ampex Corp. (Amex:AXC) today announced that its West Coast Internet video affiliate, Alternative Entertainment Network, has been named to a key list of "10 Great" Internet video sites.

The site can be found at www.aentv.com.

"We are extremely gratified that AENTV.com site has been singled out by the influential Broadcasting & Cable Magazine as one of '10 Great Video Sites,' particularly considering the company on the list," said Drew Cummings, president and CEO of AENTV.

Other video sites honored on the same list include those of ABC News, CNN Interactive, Fox News, MSNBC, Warner Bros. and the National Basketball Association.

Edward Bramson, Ampex's chairman, said, "We are delighted at the recognition that Drew Cummings and AENTV are receiving as leaders in Internet video, and we look forward to building upon our strategic relationship with them."

AENTV, in which Ampex made a strategic investment in February, is headquartered near Los Angeles. Ampex has also recently made a strategic investment in TV onthe WEB, based in the Washington, D.C. area, an Internet video provider focused on business-to-business markets. Ampex is a pioneering innovator in digital video and audio and is now extending its technical experience into the area of streaming visual images on the world wide web.

Ampex Corp. (www.ampex.com), headquartered in Redwood City, is one of the world's leading providers of technologies for the acquisition, storage and processing of visual information. Today, Ampex is delivering digital image solutions for large-scale corporate, government, network, entertainment and telecommunications applications.

During its more than 50-year history of innovation, Ampex has been granted thousands of patents and numerous awards for technical achievement. Ampex customers include such leading organizations as AT&T, the Federal Aviation Administration, Fox Television, HBO, Netcom, and Prevue Networks.



To: B. A. Marlow who wrote (6431)3/23/1999 1:14:00 PM
From: Thomas Kirwin  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 17679
 
BCST Valuation Model

fnews.yahoo.com

Morning Report

Tue Mar 23

Value Signals: Broadcast.com, Getting A Yippee From Yahoo?

By Steve Harmon
Senior Investment Analyst

Internet.com "Where Wall Street Meets The Web"

Reports say Yahoo may be in talks to acquire Broadcast.com
(NASDAQ:BCST - news), which sent shares soaring 37% yesterday for the
audio-video Web network and was cause for BCST shareholders to let out
a little "yahooo!" of their own. But what could BCST fetch if it's in
play?

For the longest time I've believed that Broadcast.com was and is in
the enviable position of being a next-generation portal. Just as the
first-gen portals emerged in the text-driven space it's always been a
mystery to me why only Broadcast.com has the mindshare and marketshare
dominance and not a handful of flavors.

The only significant player here in this space other than
Broadcast.com is RealNetworks (NASDAQ:RNWK - news) .

Unfortunately for Yahoo was the 37% jump in market cap for BCST on the
rumor, effectively creating a dilemma if indeed talks are underway.
That basically means the premium has been discounted into BCST as if
the deal is real.

But it also sets up BCST shareholders for another Lycos situation
where shares ran on deal fever and no premium was forthcoming above
the run when a real bid is announced. Shareholders want their cake and
want to smear it on the acquirer's face too.

My estimated valuation for Broadcast.com relies on two key assets
centered on people: the employees who have built it into the leading
audio-video portal and the users who number 8.9 million per month
according to MediaMetrix.

I'm not valuing it on a multiple of revenue or earnings yet since I
believe that hypergrowth could lead to a fully-digestible multiple of
both by the year 2001. Today's market sits more on core competency
that can scale as well as users that will up sell the earnings model.

Let's take a look at the abacus tweaking I've done:

Broadcast.com BCST
Shares out 34.2
Price 3/22 $116.50
Market cap $3,984.30
1998 revenue $22.40
4Q98 rev $7.60
Annualized $30.39
4Q98 loss $(5.18)
Annualized $(20.73)
Est. 99 rev $37.00
Est. 99 rev as part of Yahoo $45.00
Deal rev. multiple @ $4,000 88.9
4,250 94.4
Unique users 8.9
Value/user $447.67
Harmon's est.
Value/user $532.00
Implied mkt value $4,734.80
Yahoo value/user $1,063.79
@Home/Excite Bid per user $367.63
At same per… $3,271.88

**All figures in millions, except share price, multiple and value per
user

Broadcast.com's biggest moment in the sun Webcasting Victoria's
Secrets new lingerie lineup February 3 with 2 million users logging
in. Another big day came via Clinton's zippergate (combine the two and
imagine what a day it would have selling Monica's Secret!).

Viewer habits aside, the bread and butter of Broadcast.com is the
breadth of its broadcasting. Broadcast.com aggregates more than 385
programming feeds from radio and TV station and cable for use on the
Web and sports for over 420 college and pro teams, 2400 CDs on demand,
re than 500 audio books.

Revenue in 1998 was $22.4 million, small relative to Yahoo's $203
million. But keep in mind the 28.8 dial up experience that most Web
users had last year and the emerging broadband platform that
Broadcast.com is better suited for.

As such, I estimate BCST could generate $37 million revenue for 1999,
more if it was part of Yahoo's huge selling machine. That puts the
revenue multiple on BCST at more than 80x under its existing market
cap and a $4.7 billion takeout value that I place on the firm at $532
per user. That's half what Yahoo users trade for so in a way Yahoo
buys growth at 50% of its own value per user.

That valuation depends heavily on if Yahoo or multiple bidders emerge.
Or any. Natural born buyer to me is AOL first and foremost. I can't
see AOL's Bob Pittman and Ted Leonsis, both big believers in the Web
as 'better TV,' as letting Broadcast.com get away from them.

AOL can digest this one much easier than Yahoo with its market cap
leverage, capital and cash flow. Stay tuned for sure on this one.



To: B. A. Marlow who wrote (6431)3/23/1999 7:13:00 PM
From: Sam Sara  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 17679
 
<Not sure that TVW's model offers an easy way to generate huge traffic to a particular event. It's running a sponsored content aggregation business, not a movie theatre. Its mandate is to build slowly but progressively. Think the solution is to install links on important Web sites (just like the link on RNWK's new streaming media site), and establish strategic alliances with important third parties (everyone from AMZN to ZD in the Net space, plus the confederacy of each content area) who can throw off traffic. >

BAM, as usual, your comments are on the mark. Let me point out some other views, however:

1) The *nature* and *quality* of the eyeballs are as important as the number- witness the frantic search for the 24-35 demographic by the conventional TV organizations. One of the purported advantages of the business transactions over the net is the ability to "narrowcast" to your audience/customers (a la Amazon with its intensive customer database); TVontheWEB by its very nature will have killer narrowcast demographics- imagine the "gay channel" or the "LINUX channel", I could go on and on. In this scenario, even a 10-fold (or more) "amplification" is given to the number of eyeballs that are watching you, since YOU KNOW WHO IS WATCHING.... An advertiser's wet dream.

2) I hope TVontheWEB is not basing their decisions on what channels to generate on underwriting alone i.e. is channel profitable. At this point, burn the money- getting exposure and the beachhead are much more important. Imagine the exposure that would result if you created the "gay channel"- the press would be all over it, and when your IPO came out, the funds generated would more than cover the initial outlays.

3) I cannot agree with your statement that mandate is to "build slowly and progressively". I am sure that both AENTV and TVontheWEB are looking for ways to build rapidly and explosively. I hope their capital burn rate is astronomic- if it isn't, they are misplaying their hand.

4) For TVontheWEB, they should have a two-pronged strategy- business to business channels where underwriters are easy to find. The second arm should be consumer oriented, and to do this, they should pounce on a relationship with a major portal e.g Yahoo, Go network, AOL etc. as you suggest. Any such substantive relationship would put AXC/TVontheWEB on the radar screen, of course, and further contribute to successful IPO. What is in it for portal?- access to production facilities of TVontheWEB (a la Intervu), so they can narrowcast their *own* channel, and build a relationship with a player who is building an important business model.

All in all, obvious thoughts, but it does not hurt to state them.