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To: Mark Fowler who wrote (46962)3/23/1999 2:36:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 164685
 
4
currently defined opportunities)? Well, we think
we might have an early clue.
We believe this next phase of AOL's
development, which we dub “the third wave” is
as important as the Internet advertising
opportunity AOL went through in 96/97 (phase
one: the content phase) and as important as the
Internet commerce phase AOL went through in
97/98 (phase two: the commerce phase). If you
thought those two revenue opportunities were
impressive, they could pale in comparison to the
third: Internet Communications (that is, IP
communications). Remember that AOL's ability
to “direct” their consumers to a certain
advertising message (for which they get paid)
generated a good portion of their shareholder
value throughout 1996 and 1997. Remember too,
that AOL's ability to “direct” their consumers' to
a certain transaction then took the Street's
imagination (and AOL's market cap) to even
higher levels in 97/98. We think AOL's ability to
“direct” their consumers' IP communications
traffic (in a voice-over-IP world) is the third and
perhaps most important emerging opportunity
we've come across in the many years we've been
watching this name.
We'll Have Much More To Say About The Third
Wave In An Upcoming Report
At each of our meetings, we presented this
concept to management, with unanimous
agreement among them that AOL stands to
benefit enormously from “owning” the IP
communications stream of 40 million consumers
today and the 50? 60? million in two years when
voice over IP becomes a reality. We suspect that
folks like WorldCom, Quest, the RBOCs, etc
will be scrambling to transom as much traffic
over their fixed cost infrastructure as possible,
and in a voice-over IP world, AOL will be able
to direct traffic just like they direct consumers'
attention spans (content) and direct consumers'
wallets (commerce). Though we'll have much
more to say in an upcoming report on the
subject, we think that AOL's market cap today
could look like a great entry point if they are able
to execute against this opportunity.
We'd Be All Over The Stock At These Levels
Business looks great, the only material overhang
on the stock (the broadband “threat”) looks like
it will be passing out of the Street's collective
conscience soon (with each passing DSL deal
and the likelihood that AOL will be able to strike
a cable deal sooner rather than later on terms that
make sense to them), and we've got an early eye
on what could be a huge new revenue stream for
AOL in the form of their next
“disintermediation”: Internet communications,
the Third Wave. We're aggressively reiterating
our Strong Buy rating this morning.
We've Seen The Future…It Is DoubleClick
We upgraded DoubleClick on Thursday last
week and thought we would include the rationale
for that upgrade in The Internet Capitalist.
Since we don't give out the Strong Buy rating
with much frequency in our space, we wanted to
provide the (somewhat) lengthy explanation in
this forum, hoping that our enthusiasm is backed
by sound judgment and due diligence.
After digesting a series of announcements from
DoubleClick, speaking extensively to
advertisers, agencies and Web publishers, and
meeting with management in a series of
meetings over the last month, we've come away
with much more confidence that DoubleClick is
well on their way to establishing themselves as
the leading Internet advertising services
company out there, with a great technology
(DART), a huge first mover advantage, a critical
mass of advertisers and Web publishers, and
some great new products that are well timed to
take advantage of the most important trend in
Internet advertising today: targeting.
The Network, DART/Closed Loop, And
Targeting Are Why We're Upgrading



To: Mark Fowler who wrote (46962)3/23/1999 2:46:00 PM
From: HG  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 164685
 
Couldn'ttake the suspense. Sold at 144. Want to be clear till direction is established tomorrow. Stuck with EXDS...will hold that. One loser a day is enough !