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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Tokyo Joe's Cafe / Societe Anonyme/No Pennies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Panita who wrote (69081)	4/15/1999 1:48:00 PM
From: songw	Respond to of 119973

Worldgate WGAT -Cable Internet IPO- SEAC side play The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that cable internet provider Worldgate Communications wgate.com is expected to make its way into the market sometime later today.WorldGate WGAT delivers full Internet access over cable lines through a set-top box hooked to the TV, delivering data at 128,000 bps (faster than conventional phone modems). Its Channel HyperLinking allows TV viewers to go directly to Web sites associated with TV programs; about 70 TV programmers are HyperLinking partners . ipocentral.com WorldGate is selling its service for $11.95 a month for unlimited use and is targeting people who don't already have Internet access through personal computers. "We're trying to keep it simple," said chief executive Hal Krisbergh "This is not for techno-freaks." Besides price WorldGate is touting one advantage over competitors. Unlike WebTV, customers don't have to buy special equipment to get WorldGate. They simply sign up for it through their cable company (if the set top is WGAT enabled) according to the article. phillynews.com But WGAT also faces obstacles. No one knows who will win the battle to bring the Internet to television, or whether customers will want the service at all. WorldGate will have to duke it out with Microsoft, which owns WebTV; AT&T, which owns the majority of AtHome; Time Warner, which offers RoadRunner; and a host of others striving to wed the Web to cable. In addition Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co., the lead investment banker on the deal, is well-respected but doesn't have the cachet or plentiful connections of a Morgan Stanley or a Goldman Sachs, said Ben Holmes, the ipoPros.com founder who also has picked WorldGate as a "must-buy." Still WorldGate has financial backing from General Instrument and Scientific-Atlanta, both makers of set-top cable boxes, as well as Citigroup and Motorola. It plans to use the $80 million or so it raises today to pay down about $6 million in debt and $2 million on capital expenditures, and use the remainder on working capital and for general corporate purposes. And of course it is involved in the red hot broadband section of the internet market. If WGAT rockets one idea may Seachange SEAC, trading 10s. SEAC spiked yesterday and has fallen back today- on news that it is now offering video streaming over the internet biz.yahoo.com and will detail its plans at next week's NAB meeting. How does SEAC fit in with Worldgate? Last year SEAC sand WGAT formed a partnership centered around developing Channel Hyperlinking technology and video on demand- "WorldGate and SeaChange Cooperate To Offer Internet Television Advertising And VOD Development ATLANTA, May 5, 1998 – A new partnership between WorldGate Communications and SeaChange International, Inc., will allow television advertisers to link their locally-targeted commercials directly to related web sites using WorldGate's Channel HyperLinkingSM technology. Channel HyperLinking is WorldGate's ability to instantly link broadcast or cable television programming and advertising with related web sites using cable television's broadband infrastructure. The two companies will also cooperate to develop a navigation interface for video on demand (VOD) systems." wgate.com A quick look thru SEAC's partnerships shows that it also has signed to provide Microsoft's WebTV digital ad technology last October schange.com . In addition SEAC has video delivery deals with heavyweight cable operators Cablevision, Charter Comm., Comcast, Time Warner, MediaOne, TCI Media Services/ATT among others schange.com Whether SEAC will be able to parlay its current video partnerships into an expanded role for internet video streaming remains to be seen- but with other similar streamers running up this past month it might be worth keeping an eye on.