T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
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990.1 | | CIM::LOREN | Loren Konkus | Mon Apr 01 1996 21:07 | 5 |
| btw, a week ago some guy asked in misc.invest.stocks for opinions about
investing the down payment for his house in the Yahoo ipo. Many replies
said that it probably wasn't good to risk short term money in an ipo,
but very few questioned the basic idea of investing in a web directory
and search engine company.
|
990.2 | Not me | WMODEV::GERARDI_B | America's PSG | Tue Apr 02 1996 12:28 | 22 |
| re: Yahoo IPO
I think the theory is the same as DEC using Alta Vista as a product.
It fills a need for a good search engine. The thinking is, there are
a lot of people on the Web, they need to search for what they need,
Yahoo wants to be the best one (of many.) Just like Netscape wants
to be the best browser (of many.) How will Yahoo be best? Maybe it'll
go for exclusive listings, or such. Maybe it will go as a strategic
partner to Microsoft. Maybe it'll be easiest to use. Maybe they'll
come out with other products (like a browser) or something.
I would stay away from it, but then again, I tend to stay away from
IPOs. I'm pretty bearish on tech stocks right now (I'm really anxious
to hear this quarter's earning for the industry.) If the industry is
in a downturn, Yahoo might be a bust.
I certainly wouldn't put the house on it.
Bart
|
990.3 | | AKOCOA::BREEN | You never can tell | Wed Apr 03 1996 17:48 | 9 |
| I think the concept is in people investing in an image. Netscape is a
modern phenomenom in that a small percentage of ownership was offered
at a price/capitalization which had no conventional investment
foundation. Then the money poured in and voila, now the talent has the
capital to quickly justify the heretofore "foolish" ipo investment.
And the "fools" mostly made money.
If Digital took 10% of AltaVista and made it public why couldn't they
repeat the Netscape story?
|
990.4 | It's partner business ... | RTOEU::KPLUSZYNSKI | Arrived... | Thu Apr 04 1996 07:07 | 15 |
| I see the business opportunity in the Intranet area. Most large
companies will have internal WWW sites set up an they need a search
engine. The internal AltaVista at digital is the example for this.
Yahoo's added value here is structuring information access for their
customers.
While AltaVista is a very powerful base technolgy for this, we should
not try to get address this market directly. We should make Yahoo, Lycos
and all the others our partners and avoid competing with them.
AltaVista still is the greatest marketing story we have had in years.
Klaus
|
990.5 | Nice one day profit for the institutional investors ... | 2155::michaud | Jeff Michaud - ObjectBroker | Mon Apr 15 1996 18:22 | 7 |
| FWIW, as a followup, the IPO occured last week (Friday I believe),
offered at $13, closed the trading day at $33, making it the best
IPO for the year thus far.
I do not know what the opening price was (the best price us mere
mortals could of gotton the stock for at the begin of public trading).
Anyone know the trading symbol?
|
990.6 | There's money in them thar Yahoos | NCMAIL::YANUSC | | Mon Apr 15 1996 22:20 | 12 |
| RE: .5
The symbol is YHOO. What anyone who wasn't trading with a market maker
could have gotten the stock for was around $22-24. Even at that price,
though, it still went up to $42. Not a bad one day profit.
Personally, I got so busy with work that day I forgot about the IPO,
and didn't get in until the low 30s. Time will tell if I can get out
with a few additional bucks in my pocket or not.
Chuck
|
990.7 | So what price Alta-Vista | CHEFS::MACLEOD | | Tue Apr 16 1996 08:05 | 17 |
|
At that price the market valuation is over $1bn, a stagering amount when
you look at the product. So Alta-Vista must be worth a similar amount, if
not more, it's certainly faster and I think it's easier to use.
Priced as $1bn Alta-Vista must be one of Digital's hottest assets, it's
more than Oracle paid for RDB.
But would Digital sell it, or possible split it off into a seperate company
but hold a majority interest.
Just Speculation, but it would certainly boost Digital's earnings...
Ferdy
|
990.8 | | ZENDIA::FERGUSON | Mr. Plumber's coding services | Tue Apr 16 1996 13:57 | 10 |
| re <<< Note 990.7 by CHEFS::MACLEOD >>>
-< So what price Alta-Vista >-
> But would Digital sell it, or possible split it off into a seperate company
> but hold a majority interest.
they should split it off!!
the rest of DEC will drag down the glitz and glitter of
AltaVista.
|
990.9 | Only one source of revenue | 2155::michaud | Jeff Michaud - ObjectBroker | Tue Apr 16 1996 14:35 | 14 |
| > At that price the market valuation is over $1bn, a stagering amount when
> you look at the product.
From my understanding, and I'm basically quoting analysts
from one or more of the following sources: NBR, W$W, CNN HN ...
Yahoo does not have a real product per se. There only revenue
is advertisement revenue. Ie. it's like the free trade rags
we've all subscribed to at one time or another. The product
itself is given away, paid fully by advertisers (though I'm
not sure Yahoo's ad revenues have yet surpassed operating costs?).
This is kinda simliar to Netscape which gives away it's browser.
However the browser is only Netscape's foot in the door, and
their revenue comes from their servers and other products.
|
990.10 | Be Careful Out There | NCMAIL::YANUSC | | Tue Apr 16 1996 15:01 | 26 |
| In last night's Syracuse, NY newspaper there was a good review of the
various search engines available for Internet users. Yahoo was
discussed, and quite a bit of time was spent on Alta Vista (it was a
syndicated article, not locally written, so others might have seen it.)
What it allowed me to see was both the positive, and in some cases,
negative aspects of each engine. And Alta Vista does have some, which
the article pointed out, but which we do not hear of. It also pointed
out that Yahoo will soon be incorporating some of the better features
that Alta Vista currently has.
We need to be careful when hyping Alta Vista - it doesn't cure cancer,
and is not a remedy for the common cold. And what Yahoo and the others
have that we do not, is marketing savvy and hype. Much like other
Digital products and services in the past, if you cannot market the
product, it ain't going anywhere. An example is clustering - Digital
invented it 20 years ago, but if you look at recent claims by Microsoft
and Compaq, it would appear that they are the first to do so. Any bets
as to which side the customers will ultimately believe?
So when you say spin off Alta Vista (which from a purely business
standpoint should be done), will the wherewithal to make it a success
be there? Or will it just become another nice product from Digital
that died a quiet death.
Chuck
|
990.11 | | HELIX::SONTAKKE | | Tue Apr 16 1996 16:57 | 4 |
| Who knows, may be Yahoo or Netscape will make an offer and Digital will
sell the Alta Vista to make the numbers for some future quarter.
- Vikas
|
990.12 | ahem | WMODEV::GERARDI_B | America's PSG | Tue Apr 16 1996 18:53 | 6 |
| re .11
Or maybe this quarter...
Bart
|
990.13 | Anything for a quick buck | HELIX::SONTAKKE | | Tue Apr 16 1996 20:46 | 9 |
| And it will probably sell it dirt cheap and put a spin on it
"To realign our business interest and to focus on our core
competency, we are divesting from the Alta Vista technology.
We are glad that dynamic company such as Yahoo has chosen our
technology and we are very fortunate to have them as our partner"
- Vikas
|
990.14 | It's still a Jewel in the Crown | CHEFS::MACLEOD | | Wed Apr 17 1996 11:48 | 9 |
|
But whatever DEC do, all of a sudden they have a hot asset, with a
value that can be roughly calculated. Which must look good on the
books.
And if times do get hard, a bit more family silver to sell...
Ferdy
|
990.15 | | ZENDIA::FERGUSON | Mr. Plumber's coding services | Wed Apr 17 1996 13:23 | 19 |
| I'm in the ISBU, home of AltaVista. i'm the PL of
one of the products which is being realigned under the
AltaVista branding from POLYCENTER.
all the mtgs i've been to, the word "marketing" is used
extensively. this pleased me, because as Chuck said in .10,
no marketing, no success. and, it just so happens that i'm
taking a marketing course right now at night. so, i can
understand the talk, and so far, it seems like the ISBU is
putting a big emphasis on mkt'g. i've been around DEC software
engineering for 9 years, and imo, DEC still is not very good
at S/w engineering... bringing good mkt'g together with engineering
will go a long way to making some of these new AltaVista products
successful;
ideas for what to build MUST come from marketing, not from
engineering.
jc
|
990.16 | | CSCMA::BALICH | | Wed Apr 17 1996 15:56 | 7 |
|
re . last few
... and if we wait long enough to decide what to do, our competitors will
pass us and Alta Vista will become a 'has been'
|
990.17 | | ZENDIA::FERGUSON | Mr. Plumber's coding services | Thu Apr 18 1996 15:34 | 11 |
| re <<< Note 990.16 by CSCMA::BALICH >>>
you are right on that.
those small nimble companies aren't busy moving people around
and building executive suites... they're making product and
getting it out there.
i've always questioned and wondered why the ISBU is waiting sooo
long to do their big kickoff in early May.
why not now?
|
990.18 | SF Chronicle article on Web search engines | 2155::michaud | Jeff Michaud - ObjectBroker | Fri Apr 19 1996 23:25 | 143 |
990.19 | Like most IPOs, profit is to be made 1st trading day | 2155::michaud | Jeff Michaud - ObjectBroker | Wed Jul 10 1996 19:11 | 7 |
| .5> FWIW, as a followup, the IPO occured last week (Friday I believe),
.5> offered at $13, closed the trading day at $33, making it the best
.5> IPO for the year thus far.
Caught this from the DBC Headlines:
[#ALERT,#TECH,YHOO] YAHOO! HITS NEW 52-WEEK LOW OF 16 1/4
|