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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Teflon who wrote (18681)	3/23/1999 11:52:00 PM
From: djia101362	Respond to of 74651

Microsoft settlement proposal expected news.com

To: Teflon who wrote (18681)	3/24/1999 12:10:00 AM
From: t2	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

Teflon, That settlement story posted by taxman and djia should mean some points to the upside --- maybe tomorrow. It looks like a proposal is being made by MSFT. When the nasdaq slides downward, more subtle pressure to settle is being applied on the DOJ and 19 states. Too many Americans have a lot invested in technology funds and the S and P 500 index funds-not to mention big funds like Magellan and Nasdq 100 type of funds. All these people see MSFT as the top holding in most of their mutual funds-------that is a lot potentially unhappy people whether they have $5,000 or 5 million in mutual funds, it is does not matter. Index funds are ever increasing in popularity. Thinking about such possibilities should send shivers down the state attorneys' spines---in addition to state governors. If I was one those people, I would be thinking about the all the angry investors and more importantly voters and campaign supporters. Sure would make me want to find a way to settle.-------Glad I am not a politician. Of course this is another angle to the case. Call me crazy but these are factors in the case whether they admit it or not. Lucky for us, MSFT has the largest market cap!!!! Everyone smart investor knows that if we see a reasonable settlement, Microsoft is going to rocket 20% very quickly. A big turnaround in MSFT can add a lot of momentum to the Nasdaq and even the DOW stocks. Other stocks that have been hit recently, will be rising along with MSFT.

To: Teflon who wrote (18681)	3/24/1999 1:42:00 AM
From: RTev	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

He is in it for the buyout/consolidation play after ATHM is merged with RoadRunner. Maybe, in the very long term, when a buyout would be much more expensive. But, for now, it looks like Paul Allen is doing everything possible to build a system that can stand alone. "Competition" isn't really the right word since few of these systems goes head-to-head against the others, but Allen seems to be combining enough small outfits that he'll have something that is too big for AT&T/@home to swallow. To bring it all on-topic: Microsoft might stand to gain from all this. It's not clear to anyone -- even Microsoft itself -- where it will fit into all of this. T+ATHM is a danger to Microsoft because it seems poised to provide an end-to-end solution for TV, internet, and telephony. It's possible (but not assured) that their solution could leave Microsoft out of the picture. But if Microsoft can convince Allen's Charter/GNET group, or TWX and RoadRunner (in which MSFT has an investment) to use a Microsoft solution, or could convince Comcast (in which MSFT holds an 11% interest and which is a partner in ATHM) to use something other than the solution determined by AT&T, then Microsoft has a chance to be an important player. And by the way, making $$ seems to be rather low on Paul Allen's list of priorities. He seems to enjoy spending it, and he does so lavishly, but his investment history and spending patterns suggest that he has some difficulty seeing money as an end in itself (which is probably why it's a good thing Allen ran the nerdy bit-shuffling end of things in the early days of Microsoft and Gates ran the business).