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

To: badon518 who wrote (7037)	4/14/1999 9:21:00 AM
From: whitephosphorus	Respond to of 19700

Check out Comdisco (CDO) as quality play on venture Comdisco's Ventures Group has traditionally gotten in the door of many smaller private high-tech companies by leasing various equipment to these companies. This practice has evolved into a significant venture capital group, and during fiscal 1998, the marketing team within this Venture Group nearly doubled. We believe the Ventures Group is stuffed with small ownership stakes in private companies in various industries including Internet, networking, wireless communications, software, hardware, semiconductors, and many others. We believe there are well over 150 investments and the total could be closer to 250. To see a partial list, one can view the Comdisco Web site (www.comdisco.com) and look under the Comdisco Ventures Group. We believe there are clearly several gems in this portfolio. For example, revenue from the Ventures Group rose 24% to $120 million in fiscal 1998. The Company gained 101 new accounts, a record number. The portfolio produced 16 IPOs and 14 other companies were acquired, producing more records. Examples include Inktomi, Micromuse, Sportsline USA, USWeb Corporation, and twelve other companies that performed IPOs. In addition, Comdisco had an ownership interest in Hotmail, which was acquired by Microsoft. Again, valuing this portfolio is extremely difficult. Many have pointed to CMGI, Inc. (CMGI) as one comparison, but CMGI is a pure play and the Ventures Group is buried in this big leasing company. CMGI, Inc. invests in, develops, and integrates advanced Internet, interactive, and database management technologies. Friday, April 9, 1999, CMGI closed at $264 3/8, up 17 3/8. We speculate the real way to crack the value of the Ventures Group would be to spin off or IPO a portion to the public. While we have no idea what Comdisco is planning to do with the Ventures Group, we believe it is clearly a hidden gem today.