tolea posted this in the Priceline folder on 5-15
Priceline is offering a service that really has potential that it is not even currently showing. Five to ten years down the road, the rest of the "internet world" will have have PCLN to contend with in the largest manner possible. What better way to reach consumers over the internet than to offer the best deals available (anywhere) on a growing wide array of products.
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posted by dude in the ICGE board on 5-12
ICGE made it to my radar screen when it fell below 50. I need to do more research before I can make a call on it, but it does seem to be reasonably priced at these levels. At 200 it was obviously overvalued... it only made it to that level because the lemmings heard that B2B was the next big thing and all jumped on board. Now they're being told that B2B is cold so they should abandon ship. B2B may be temporarily cold, and ICGE may have trouble getting its companies to an IPO, but in the long term it's still a great place to put your money, and if you're in doubt about which horses to bet on, why not buy a whole stable?
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bobcobb posted this on 5-11 about Value America
Here is an interesting headline I just saw...'Value America has received an equity investment of $90 million from two separate groups, putting the troubled e-tailer on track to reach profitability in 2002.'
The article does make it sound like some changes have occurred, but why should we believe that a cash infusion will ever make the company profitable? That's faulty logic. The cash infusion might allow it to stay around long enough that it has a chance to become profitable... that's all it can possibly do.
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smario posted this in the Intel board on 5-1
What's key from this is that Intel has been shifting from a PC focus to an Internet focus. Intel's old focus, the PC, is fading in importance. Intel has recognized that the PC is merely one, and relatively clunky and expensive, way to access the Internet, and with more efficient ways to reach the web(TV, phone, handhelds), Intel wants to be central to all of these Web devices. And they can and will do this. Great news for Intel shareholders.
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Gatsby posted this about Amazon on 5-1
I actually caught a bit of the conference call. Amazon's executives repeatedly talked about the "drive to profitability" with continued gross margin improvement and a decreasing cash burn. They have over $1 billion in cash in the war chest right now. However, the biggest problem seems to be the failing of the companies in the Amazon network. It's great to be a one-stop place for shopping, but if you build it through acquisition, and those acquisitions fail as businesses (just look at any of the relevant stock prices), then what do you have? Books and CDs. Ooooh.
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dude posted this about Microsoft on 4-28
In the meantime, the best I can do is to say that if one accepts the premise that a breakup is the best thing for Microsoft, one must also conclude both that (1) Microsoft management doesn't know what's in its best interest (or as gatsby and some conspiracy theorists have claimed, Gates actually does want MSFT broken up); and that (2) the case against Microsoft, i.e. that it is unfairly benefiting from its position, is without merit (after all, if the operating system and the web browser would both be better off decoupled, then how is Microsoft unfairly taking advantage of its current position?); and that (3) all these tech startups that fear Microsoft's power and want the company to be broken up so they can better compete must be deluded. As Cramer would say: Wrong!
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econguru posted this in the Economy board on 4-27
The really interesting economic question in my mind is: do the old rules still apply? People in the technology world are arguing vociferously that the high growth rate is caused by rapid increases in productivity--meaning we shouldn't be worrying about inflation so much. Similarly, the old estimates of NAIRU (the amount of unemployment required to keep a normal rate of inflation) are not valid because of the way technology has changed things. So, are we really in an economic revolution? Should investors throw out the old ideas that economists are wedded to? How long will it take for the economists (Greenspan) to change their views if this is a revolution?
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joe62 said this in the Who are the best stockpickers? board on 4-27
While I applaud Tom's call for greater mutual fund disclosure, I'm not sure that it would do a fund investor a lick of good. I invest with an active fund manager because I believe that the manager has superior insight and stock picking skills. Any given day, if he purchases a stock that I think is wildly overvalued, it really shouldn't matter. In purchasing a fund, I'm purchasing his or her judgment. We're bound to disagree. I look to longer term trends to make sure that the manager is staying honest in his or her work. All of that said, my philosophy makes chosing an active manager that much tougher. Ideally, I talk to the manager, or read some research written by him or her, to learn how they think. While that's not possible in most cases, it really can open up your eyes. In the end, I believe that there are very few truly outstanding managers. I invest some of my funds with them. And, I can come up with a handful of good stocks to own directly. The rest I index as then I know exactly what I'm buying with no window dressing possible.
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Anonymoose posted this about Amazon on 4-24
CEOs always say they don't watch the stock prices. While it's true that they don't have control over them, they really should pay attention to them, for the reason that you gave - if the stock price falls, it makes stock-based acquisitions more expensive.
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posted by uncleharley on 4-21 in the Today's Market board
I have felt that the market has been inconsistant for over a year now and my investing has been somewhat defensive also.
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JHirsch posted this about Online Advertising on 4-18
I don't think any recent events will cause ad budgets to be cut any more than they would have been otherwise. I think the effect will be to keep as many new IPO entrants from coming in to any of these markets and just throwing money at advertising as the "business model" has been for a year or so for many companies. A lot of companies have also been subsisting on merely ad revnues and there will also be fewer of those companies getting funding and offering space to advertise in. The net effect will be pretty much a wash i'd say.
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Machiavelli answered the question of the month on 4-14
I really think the big winners from the collapse of etailing will be companies like Walmart and KMart. In fact, I'm even thinking about investing in one or both, because of the opportunities that will open up for them both in the short and long term. What does everyone think?
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wassup? posted this in the Microsoft board on 4-12
A Goldman Sachs analyst cut his earnings forcasts for MSFT citing sluggish PC Growth. The giant is taking another hit and is now only about 4 points away from a 52-week low. At some point people have to start thinking this is a great bargain.
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fanatic posted this in the E*Trade board on 4-12
All in all, I'm impressed with E*Trade's numbers. They've grown revenues by 152% and accounts by 169% in 12 months. Granted, they were helped by the general uptrend in tech stocks and by the increased volatility, so I wouldn't expect similar growth rates in the coming year, but they don't seem to be feeling any pain from intensifying competition, at least not yet.
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posted by JHirsch on 04-11 about Priceline.com
What incentive do the supermarkets really have to sell these goods... in most cases they aren't excess goods, but rather goods they'd sell anyway later. Yeah, you reduce inventory costs, but there are things called SALES to do that. They happen every day. Just go to your local grocer and take a look down the aisles... Seriously though I don't think this model will succeed, although I did recently notice here in the DC area some of the more upscale groceries are now using the service. That will help a little but it still won't succeed.
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