To: Sam Sara who wrote (5419 ) 5/12/1999 2:46:00 AM From: B. A. Marlow Respond to of 28311
Thanks for the wink, David. Right about GNET, to which this thread will amply attest. SI is certainly GNET's Pied Piper, but don't be short-changed. It's also GNET's "Clark Kent." What's really going on in this community--before our very eyes and on our own nickels, no less--is the future of individual investing, shareholder relations and corporate governance. Most remarkable about GNET is its breadth and depth--assembled on a budget, with discipline and without fanfare. Let LCOS host the controversy; we'll just host the business! Yes, I would have gotten into GNET sans SI, but the first $200 a share (it was $100 pre-split, which equates to $50 now) has SI's name on it. So one might look at Tuesday's closing price of $138.25 as a 30.9 percent discount on SI; the rest is free! As you may know, the pace of SI subscriber sign-ups is accelerating: 80,000 last June, 105,000 at year-end and 150,000 at Q1 (not to overlook nearly 10,000,000 posts!). SI's enhanced user interface, along with new features and services, will debut shortly. Actually, all of the other GNET services and businesses are terrific--including Go2Net Labs--but the alligator will likely turn out to be Hypermart (with recently acquired Virtual Avenue): nearly 300,000 small business Web sites (and 1,000 new ones each day) equals prodigious economic power. All this and no email? USAI's Barry "The Godfather" Diller and CMGI's David Wetherell can only wish for "viral" assets like these. The point is this, Doc. What Russ H. and family are doing is very different from the crowd. (Few "get" it, even most shareholders, but that's fine for now.) They're assembling a proprietary network of compelling functionality and building-block services on top of largely user-generated content, and they're employing a heretical business model--it makes money! Twenty-five years ago, we might have called such a business model a "conglomerate." Today's Net-savvy conventional wisdom suggests that this structure carry the moniker, "portal." But if you look under the hood, you'll see a machine vastly more powerful than a mere search engine with "cup-holders." It's a bird! It's a plane! It's an...operating system! Guess Paul Allen knows 'em when he sees 'em! Of course, many more Hummers belong in GNET's fleet, maybe even email. And clearly, multimedia will be a critical weapon for GNET, too. But hey, Russ promised one acquisition a quarter; it's only May and he's already bagged three! BAM P.S. (O-T) You're welcome on BCST (YHOO) (get back in and stay put!). AXC's merely baby EMC + baby BCST. Will that suffice?!