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Technology Stocks : IATV-ACTV Digital Convergence Software-HyperTV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skip Jack who wrote (4380)	6/1/1999 1:47:00 PM
From: Bruce Cullen	Respond to of 13157

"Liberty Media CEO, Malone, Hints AT&T Break with Company " Amazingly I feel better after reading that, this entire spectrum stretched over too many fields of competition. Liberty should take a stronger position as a leader and not a partner to all the mess. Microsoft is a mess and I feel Liberty is to professional for them, MSFT has a history of Mr. Bully, I would rather not be on their team at all! Stock is rising as the public takes the news in stride. ---------------------- The other side... ---------------------- FOCUS-Liberty Media to get major stake in Teligent (recasts, adds background, comments, stock prices, quotes) By Ian Simpson NEW YORK, June 1 (Reuters) - Liberty Media Group, the cable TV programming arm of AT&T Corp., on Tuesday widened its reach in telecommunications with a deal that will give it a major stake in Wall Street darling Teligent Inc. (Nasdaq:TGNT - news), a wireless communications company that focuses on business customers.

To: Skip Jack who wrote (4380)	6/1/1999 1:52:00 PM
From: Skip Jack	Respond to of 13157

Perlman Observes What He Learned at WebTV Microsoft Releasing New WebTV with Windows CE The three most important things Steve Perlman learned as President of WebTV, according to an article in the EE Times, is that 1) you must never "underestimate the time and money it takes to educate the channel on how to sell a new category of consumer products"; 2) start-ups must take the long-term view and create their own measurements for success; and 3) "Consumer-electronics products are a new beast", he said. "Your success has less to do with the early sales. It has a lot to do with customer satisfaction." The man who co-founded WebTV is taking some needed time off after founding his multimillion dollar company. Bought by Microsoft in 1997, Perlman has decided to step down as president and spend time tinkering around his home multimedia laboratory in San Francisco. Ultimately, Perlman believes people want interactive television to incorporate the Web as the primary form of interactivity. He's hoping he can invent something new that can improve that experience. It has been a long time coming. With but a few versions of WebTV on the market today (Classic, Plus, and Plus for Windows 98) Perlman leaves at a critical juncture as WebTV weds itself to satellite firm, EchoStar, incorporates a digital hard drive, and integrates Microsoft's Windows CE platform. "In an area where a TV and a PC meet our goal is to see, over time, every DTV embedded with WebTV and running Windows CE", said Craig Mundie. The new WebTV-CE box will incorporate technologies which support enhanced TV and all the other standard offerings. Prices will be $99 for Classic, $199 for Plus, and $499 for the EchoStar satellite box. Processor speeds will increase to 175 Mhz - chips from Quantam Effect Design - and things will be tweaked to fit the new architecture. The prevailing belief is that WebTV will become less a set-top box and more a software solution. But, as interactive television technologies and applications increase, will WebTV evolve with into a browser or will it become a component technology residing on advanced boxes? Developments in standardization and market fluctuations will tell the tale. Microsoft will certainly attempt to accomplish what it has done for the PC for ITV. But will IP broadband emerge as a greater challenge or will a new configuration appear to challenge our expectations?

To: Skip Jack who wrote (4380)	6/1/1999 2:56:00 PM
From: Mike Fredericks	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 13157

Two larger deals include the TV Games Networks (interactive horse racing in Kentucky), and interactive TV Guide (a joint venture with Murdoch's News Corp). I know that the TV Guide deal has been publicized by IATV. Question - has the Horse Racing stuff ever been publicly linked with IATV? I will certainly grant that it is a reasonable inference that IATV is somehow connected with this, but I want to know if it has ever been publicized by IATV or anyone else. I went to Goto.Com and searched for "TV Games Networks" in quotations (small plug - actually I went to my own mini portal at holymarket.com and did the goto search and made two whole cents in the process... 49,999,982 more searches until I'm a millionaire... before taxes). Anyway, the only result that came up was youbet.com . Now, I happened to become familiarized with youbet.com this past weekend as my father-in-law enlisted my help in ordering their software and setting up the account. I read many press releases at their site and searched for news under their stock symbol (UBET) and read their most recent quarterly report and saw no mention of Liberty. This is both good and bad. Good: Youbet clearly does not use IATV and if this were Liberty's project then we would be out of luck. Bad: Youbet is a competitor for Liberty's offering. However after looking at it, I believe Liberty's offering will be better because UBET is limited to streaming video of a horse race which looks crappy over 56k, and when it's on television it will look much smoother. Of course, youbet will probably look better on ADSL or a Cable Modem. So anyway, I haven't found any information linking IATV to TV Games Networks, and I would be most happy if anyone could provide it for me. Gambling may be a vice but it's a very profitable one and I think that IATV could make a pretty penny if they get any form of commissions off of the racing channel. -Mike

To: Skip Jack who wrote (4380)	6/1/1999 4:18:00 PM
From: art slott	Respond to of 13157

AT&T Gets Into Fixed Wireless by Joanna Glasner 12:50 p.m. 1.Jun.99.PDT AT&T's Liberty Media Group, a cable programming unit led by cable-TV magnate John Malone, said Tuesday it agreed to buy The Associated Group, a telecommunications investment firm, for US$3 billion in stock. The purchase gives Liberty, the producer of Court TV and The Discovery Channel, Associated's controlling 41 percent stake in Teligent, a fast-growing provider of phone and Internet service. Teligent, a type of company known as a competitive local exchange carrier, uses wireless technology to get around the local phone company's monopoly on land lines. "It had looked as if John Malone was interested in being a content provider ... but he has proved himself to be a sophisticated and canny investor," said Jim Penhuene, a media analyst with the Yankee Group. "He probably sees any sort of CLEC focusing on small and mid-sized business as being too good an offer to avoid." Besides Teligent, Liberty will take on other Associated holdings, including TruePosition, a wireless system used as a locating device in emergencies; a stake in a Mexican cellular telephone company; and some radio broadcasting operations. Liberty didn't specify what it plans to do with Associated's hodge-podge of assets. Teligent, which was co-founded by Associated, sells telephone and high-speed Internet services to businesses in 27 urban and suburban areas in the United States. The Teligent system relies on small rooftop antennas that relay traffic to substations in major metropolitan areas. Alex Mandl, Teligent's chief executive, said the Liberty acquisition will help the company carry out its plan of bringing its wireless broadband service to 74 of the largest US business markets. Ironically, Mandl at one time served as the president of AT&T and was in line to become the CEO. He joined Teligent in 1996. AT&T isn't the first telco to look to wireless technology to get around the local phone monopolies. In April, Sprint bought Speed Choice, a wireless cable television company, for $103 million. It may use the company's technology to eventually provide Internet access and other services. "It's a logical expansion for AT&T," said Ray Jodoin, wireless analyst with Cahners In-Stat Group. "AT&T, like Sprint, would like to be your womb-to-tomb, one-stop shopping center. That's a nice way to supplement the technologies they do have." Teligent shares (TGNT) jumped $7.50 to $56.63 in early afternoon trading. Shares of Liberty Media (LMGa) fell 19 cents to $66.25. The tax-free transaction still needs approval from Associated shareholders and government regulators, including the Federal Communications Commission. The companies plan to complete the acquisition in early 2000. Related Wired Links: Microsoft Buys Stake in AT&T 6.May.99 She's Not Your Mother's