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Technology Stocks : Voice-on-the-net (VON), VoIP, Internet (IP) Telephony -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Blazejay who wrote (2719)	5/21/1999 10:36:00 PM
From: Diamondhead	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3178

Blaze, I would say to go with IDTC. Unless you have connections or are already rich, you will probably have a hard time getting your hands on any IPO at the offer price. By the time you can buy it will have quadrupled. IDTC will retain 66% of Net2phone so you can get a part of the action by owning IDTC. Also, you can now get IDTC for a very good price right now before all the upgrades start rolling in (so far one yesterday (actually at reiteration of a Buy) and another one today (see below) Many investors have gotten out because they are not going to get issued directly any Net2phone stock so now is a good time to buy. Kevin GE Capital sees Snap, Net2Phone deal NBC played role in investment; IDT Corp. gets upgrade By Steve Gelsi, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 4:13 PM ET May 21, 1999 Also: NewsWatch STAMFORD, Conn. (CBS.MW) -- NBC-affiliated portal Snap Online is eyeing Internet phone service with IDT Corp.'s Net2Phone unit to boost its e-commerce offerings, an official with GE Capital told CBS.MarketWatch.com. GE Capital's managing director, Jeff Coats, said NBC had approached General Electric's financing unit about investing in an upcoming $50 million Net2Phone IPO, which was filed on Tuesday by parent IDT Corp. (IDTC: news, msgs). Both NBC and GE Capital are units of industrial giant General Electric (GE: news, msgs). Snap, a Web portal, is a joint venture between NBC and CNet (CNET: news, msgs). GE Capital will own 5.4 percent, or 2.3 million shares, in Net2Phone, according to IPO papers filed Tuesday. See story. "NBC has an investment in Snap, and they've been getting deeply into Internet commerce," Coats said. "This was a natural. Net2Phone (is) certainly going to be a great e-commerce support and enabling vehicle. We like their management and technology." Months of courtship Coats said that nothing has been signed yet but that there's been an interest from NBC in Net2Phone for months. Snap ranks as the 12th most popular site on the Web, with 9.8 million unique visitors a month, according to the latest estimates from MediaMetrix. Net2Phone, which already has distribution deals with Yahoo and Netscape, would gain reach and possibly increase its customer base by adding Snap. Net2Phone doesn't disclose the worth of such deals, but the company is slated to post $70 million in revenue in fiscal year 2000, up from $40 million in 1999, according to Friedman Billings Ramsey. Analyst Riyad Said of Friedman Billings Ramsey said a "crude" estimate of the worth of a possible Snap deal is $12 million or more a year in revenue. Shares of IDT dipped 1/4 to 26 5/16 on Friday. Upgrade In a related move concerning Hackensack, N.J.-based IDT Corp., Friedman Billings Ramsey raised its rating on the company to "buy" from "selective buy" and set a 12-month price target of $38. "We believe that execution of this long-awaited Net2Phone IPO will enable the company to unlock the value and exploit its leadership position in this burgeoning market segment," analyst Said said in a research brief. "This will also enable investors to more easily track both the core telecom business and the Net2Phone business going forward." GE Capital strategy GE Capital's first investment in the Internet space was the $8 million it put into Auto-By-Tel in 1996. The online car dealer went public six weeks ago. Coats aid GE saw an opportunity to boost GE's auto financing, insurance and leasing businesses by backing Auto-By-Tel. "It was a beautiful relationship to get started with," he said. "We tend to work with our sister operating businesses in the investments that we make." GE Capital is nearing a business-to-business Internet deal in the next few weeks, he said. Other beneficiaries of GE Capital Web investments include shopping site ValueVision; Xoom.com; Preview Travel; and Telescan, a financial information site. "We find investment opportunities, (and then) we take it to our sister business and we'll do the underwriting and due diligence," he said. "We manage the investment for them." He wouldn't say specifically what GE Capital's return on its Internet investments has been. "It's on a par with what other investors are experiencing in this space," he said. "It's a very healthy return." Steve Gelsi is a reporter for CBS MarketWatch.