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To: Les H who wrote (12399)	4/29/1999 6:43:00 PM
From: Les H	Respond to of 99985

Motley Fool: Internet Stocks Not A Bubble (04/29/99, 3:32 p.m. ET) By Mo Krochmal, TechWeb NEW YORK -- An online investment guru said Thursday that he sees no immediate end to the growth of the value of stocks of Internet companies. "Those who talk about over-valuation forget the tremendous potential of the industry," said Tom Gardner, co-founder of The Motley Fool, a personal-investing online company based in Alexandria, Va. Gardner, giving Thursday's keynote at the Internet & Electronic Commerce Conference and Exposition wearing a jester's hat, said he is bullish about the medium that has made him wealthy and famous -- even when the inevitable downturn comes to the stock market. But Gardner, who with his brother David founded The Motley Fool in 1994 and went on America Online in 1995, said investors should be able to differentiate between the Internet companies that are real and those that are not. He uses a Happy Days analogy, referring to the television situation comedy of the 1970s. "You have to ask: Who is the Fonz?" said Gardner, "and you have to ask who is Ralph Malph -- who is trying to say 'I'm also an Internet company.' " To extend the analogy, Fonz companies are Amazon.com and eBay, said Gardner. And they are the companies to study to learn how to do things right in Internet e-commerce. Both companies have built a name and a reputation and continue to spend large amounts of money on getting more customers, even at the risk of not making a profit. "It's the difference between Coke and Pepsi" said Gardner. A $1,000 investment in Coca-Cola in 1919 -- not factoring in inflation -- would be worth $150 million after taxes today, said Gardner. "Their greatest investment was a big marketing spend, getting people to use their product and to be loyal to it," Gardner said. "The Internet companies are recognizing that model as something they should follow." To understand how an Internet company is doing financially, Gardner said to examine its earnings before marketing expenses. "There, you will see the material costs of a company," he said.