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Technology Stocks : 3DFX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Kerling who wrote (12848)	5/20/1999 5:25:00 PM
From: Chip Anderson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

What does Ballard mean when calling TDFX an "entertainment company"? Seen the new Star Wars movie yet? ;-) The ability to interact inside of virtual 3D worlds will continue to grow and improve. Think back to the state of PCs and computer animation when the first Star Wars appeared versus now - then project that level of change into the future and ask yourself "What will people do with those kinds of advances?" The answers aren't completely clear, but I can speculate that the trend towards participatory entertainment (as opposed to the mostly passive entertainment we have now) will continue to grow. Put another way: "Wouldn't it be cool for us to be able to meet (virtually) inside of the Mos Eisley cantina to discuss this (and other) stuff?" Chip stockcharts.com

To: Peter Kerling who wrote (12848)	5/20/1999 5:41:00 PM
From: Chip Anderson	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 16960

What does Ballard mean when calling TDFX an "entertainment company"? Version 2: In the more near term - ever been to a Quake tournement? The atmosphere at the PGL events is electric. Now imagine being able to watch the top players in the world play these games via the net in spectator mode(s), with replays, with commentary, with stats - ala Fox NFL coverage but with many more options for the viewers. Q3Arena and Unreal Tournement are moving quickly in this direction. Expect Professional Gaming Leagues to become more mainstream soon. Chip stockcharts.com

To: Peter Kerling who wrote (12848)	5/20/1999 7:34:00 PM
From: Joe C.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

My vision of an "entertainment company" (for what its' worth) is a company that has a vision of continued growth, expanding its' horizons to new areas of future growth. Entertainment means whatever will help to grow this company and continue to be profitable. Short term it manages its' current business to maximize profitability and cash flow. Using these profits it looks for near term expansion where it can leverage its' skills (use what it has to either expand into new markets or complimentary markets). This is the short leap, using money and talent to extend into other potentially profitable areas. The asumption being that even though business today is good, tommorrow may be different. Acquiring STB fits perfectly into this model. TDFX still has a few other areas of mid term growth left to explore - laptops, consoles, whatever. These are the not far from what they do type ideas. Acquisition, R&D, internal skills can be all be used to gain entry. The longer term vision is the next big steps. These are the little experiments that generally fail and cost money to try. These are those vision things that no one knows whether they will work but using some of your profits/cash you take a chance. TDFX setting up a gaming site is an example. Who knows, maybe it'll fail like their last attempt at a web site. Maybe it'll be a wild success in a few years where everyone meets to play games, watch tournaments, try out new software and just chat. This is why I like TDFX the most, they are not happy making chips, they want more. Joe C.