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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rhyolite who wrote (15244)	5/6/1999 12:06:00 PM
From: Bruce McGaughey	Respond to of 41369

I would thus like to rephrase my request as follows: "Could you provide me with the source of your information regarding Bill Miller's recent sale of AOL?" I am interested because my firm only recently established its relationship with Legg Mason, and I have not had an opportunity to form an opinion about the acuity of the registered rep servicing our account. Were I to learn that he does not keep abreast of the positions held by his employer's flagship fund, that knowledge might affect the weight I give his investment advice. When I e-mailed my Legg-Mason rep yesterday, he pointed me to a Dow-Jones newswire piece concerning the unwinding of the AOL position. I have not found it yet. If I do find it, I'll try to post it.

To: Rhyolite who wrote (15244)	5/6/1999 12:09:00 PM
From: Patsy Collins	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 41369

This is what I read on Tuesday... DN 05/04/1999 08:15 @=Legg Mason Fund Mgr Sees America Online As 'Overvalued' product: DN rtcode: msindex: datetime: 05/04/1999 08:15 ticker: AOL GE MSFT index: CNGL COSE SOFT CT VA WA PUB headline: =Legg Mason Fund Mgr Sees America Online As 'Overvalued' Dow Jones News Service via Dow Jones By Christopher Bowe This story was originally published Tuesday. CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--Legg Mason Funds president William Miller said Tuesday that America Online Inc. (AOL) is overvalued. Speaking here at the Morningstar Investment Conference's legendary managers panel, Miller said AOL's stock market capitalization has approached its zenith, if you place it in context with the U.S.'s biggest companies. "It's now significantly overvalued according to our models," said Miller, who oversees about $10 billion in assets, including the Legg Mason Value Trust. If AOL's current $150 billion in market capitalization doubled, it would be roughly the size of General Electric Co (GE). At $300 billion it would be right behind Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), he said. That seemed unlikely, so it was time to sell, Miller said. After getting in early on AOL and watching its incredible price growth, Miller said he has sold AOL shares over the last few months. Looking for new technology, Miller said he's finding "a lot of value" in small cap software companies. Market share is a key factor when selecting a technology company. One of the reasons AOL was so attractive for so long is because it had fought off many challenges and still had 53% market share, Miller said. Separately, Miller said fund managers often neglect to study their archrival competition - Standard & Poor's 500 index. Fund managers routinely study a company's competition or competitors' funds, but sometimes forget to look at the inner machinations and makeup of the S&P 500. The S&P 500 is considered the benchmark to which mutual funds are measured. The S&P 500 is often updated where some stocks are replaced by new upcoming ones. Miller said the S&P provides a blueprint: winners stay on it a long time, it has low turnover (40 changes last year), and they actively weed out the losers. -Christopher Bowe; (312) 208-1093 (END) DOW JONES NEWS 05-04-99 08:15 AM - - 08 15 AM EDT 05-04-99 Next, I checked my Bloomberg terminal, and it showed that Legg Mason sold some 21 million shares....