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Technology Stocks : General Magic -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MattB who wrote (6223)	5/25/1999 12:27:00 PM
From: Rick Rappaport	Respond to of 10081

Wendy Carhart is no longer with gmgc. Anyone know why or what if anything this may mean?

To: MattB who wrote (6223)	5/25/1999 6:39:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10081

<I was wondering however if the technology's success is solely dependant on Portico's success as a commercial product. Can the technology itself be sold as others try to reproduce a Portico type product.> Here's my opinion. The foundation of Portico is several components that are made by other companies. GM has put a lot of energy into refining the dialog portion and making a functioning Network Operations Center to handle large-scale service. The dialog is now called MagicTalk and GM is saying they are going to use it in many applications for Internet and also they will provide it to build a Portico like virtual assistant for the Microsoft/Qualcomm venture Wireless Knowledge. But in the end, I am unclear where GM takes over from a lot of work in Dialog done by Nuance. This is my biggest concern as Nuance is also supplying many competitive systems with their Dialog; Webly, Motorola, Edify, Periphonics. Should it be that GM has less control over MagicTalk than we think, it could mean the company hasn't got as strong a hold on this business as we think. GM has put Nuance on notice when they announced they would work with their main competition, SpeechWorks. So, if they could switch to another ASR platform, maybe they have greater control over Dialog than I have heard. At this stage, being back in Australia has shut down my efforts to dig into this subject, but people are often willing to talk if you simply call them up and ask questions. The AVIOS show and other upcoming events are great places to ask questions. In the end, it doesn't seem possible to understand these companies from their web sites and standard PR that you find on the web. In the end, we all go round and round with visions of what could be. While in fact, things may unfold otherwise. I think the stock trades at a low for many reasons, and most of them good. They have a lot to prove and we are all waiting. The BellSouth announcement was a good one and probably deserved more respect than we got from the market, but there were some issues like exclusive use in their markets which I didn't like. So, anyone who wants to compete in the same market will have to employ a competitive system, which is exactly what we don't want. So, does GM's success depend on Portico? Well, they've had so many failed projects that another one would be pretty depressing. Portico has been a brand for a virtual assistant. They may be able to shift gears into a MagicTalk product dependance? I think the revenue and earnings potential of Portico are very interesting. Shifting away from that is not going to kill us, but it surley changes the story. In the end, the market is in a wait and see mode. So far, they don't like the financing, and they want some respectable analyst coverage, which will probably follow when we start to see some serious revenue growth, which will be a stronger indication market acceptance and of survival. Survival is still in doubt, IMHO, regardless of Steve's bravado. I'm still long and hopeful, but try to be balanced with realism. Regards, Mark