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B R E A K F A S T W I T H T H E F O O L Tuesday, October 17, 2000 benjamin.rogers@enron.com _________________________________________________________________ REGISTER TO BECOME A FOOL -- GET FREE STUFF! http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157946 _________________________________________________________________ Sponsored By: BUYandHOLD Hey Fool! Want to know the SECRET to long-term investing? Compounding and dollar-cost averaging! Start investing with as little as $20! Just $2.99 per order: http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=157947 "Things could be worse. Suppose your errors were counted and published every day, like those of a baseball player." -- Anonymous BROADVISION SAYS, "THANK YOU, PAINEWEBBER" BroadVision lands on the S&P 500. Index fund managers set phasers to &"Buy." By Rick Aristotle Munarriz "Thank you, PaineWebber!" That's the heartfelt gratitude coming from the BroadVision (Nasdaq: BVSN) camp this morning after the e-commerce software specialist was named the latest addition to the S&P 500. The vacancy sign lit up after German financial titan UBS (NYSE: UBS) agreed to acquire index member PaineWebber (NYSE: PWJ), the fourth-largest domestic brokerage services company. The transition will take place on Monday. In a world where quality companies are acquired or fade away, next week's index adjustment is hardly a rare event. Turnover comes with the territory. There have been 178 company changes within the S&P 500 over the pas five years, with no less than two dozen switches in any given year during that time. http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=157948 The process isn't that far removed from such events as getting into a hot New York City nightspot during peak party hours or landing Green Bay Packers season tickets. Someone has to bow out first, by will or misconduct, and then the thorough selection process begins. Making it to the end of the velvet rope or the top of the waiting list is an honor. While BroadVision's shares are nearly 75% off their March highs, the index inclusion provides some sort of market validation. Since the S&P 500 is a weighted index, BroadVision's new role may seem inconsequential. The stock will make up just 0.05% (or 1/2,000th) of the index's total market capitalization. But the numbers add up in a hurry. With speculators trying to jump the gun before the index-based vehicles adjust their portfolios, the buy orders should be streaming in this week. For instance, the $105 billion Vanguard 500 Index Fund alone will have to buy up at least a $50 million stake in BroadVision come Monday. So PaineWebber, whose mutual funds were ranked 100 out of 101 fund families by SmartMoney this year, finally found a way to enrich investors -- BroadVision's shareholders. http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157949 _________________________________________________________________ NEWS TO GO Earning disappointments are a disease and McAfee (Nasdaq: MCAF) has the cure. The anti-virus software company reported a narrower loss than expected (before non-cash charges) on an 86% spike in revenues. Users have taken to safe computing as a result of well-publicized viral outbreaks such as the "I Love You" virus earlier this year. Traffic at the McAfee site has now grown to 400,000 daily, and the company has lined up 650,000 paying subscribers. McAfee is majority-owned by Network Associates (Nasdaq: NETA), which also announced better-than-expected earnings. From a whisper number to a scream, shares of chip maker Altera (Nasdaq: ALTR) should open lower this morning after the company reported third-quarter results. While the $0.28-a-share showing was in line with estimates, it came a penny shy of Wall Street's whisper number. If no one wants to step in and pick up shares at half the price they were fetching just last month, Altera will. The company doubled its buyback plans from 24 million shares to 48 million. That means that as much as 9% of the outstanding stock might be bought back in the open market. http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=157950 Drive-in theaters might have become flea market stomping grounds, but drive-in restaurants are motoring. Burger-to-your-car chain Sonic (Nasdaq: SONC) closed out a strong fiscal 2000 with earnings of $1.75 a share. The fast-food firm earned $1.41 the year before. Unit production remains lettuce-crisp. Sonic has grown same-store sales for 14 consecutive years now. Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) reported analyst-topping earnings despite a slowdown in its investment banking division. Earnings climbed by 52% to $0.94 a share -- eight pennies above projections. With tensions running high given recent market volatility, the company was able to grow commissions to 26% of quarterly revenues. In boxing terms, this is a TKO. Historians marvel at Galileo, and now Marvell Tech (Nasdaq: MRVL) wants Galileo Tech (Nasdaq: GALT). In a $2.7 billion proposed stock swap, Marvell will offer 0.674 of a share for each share of the Israeli semiconductor company. Though the original Galileo -- 17th century Italian philosopher and astronomer Galileo Galilei -- was an independent thinker, Galileo Tech will no longer be an independent company. Check out yesterday's Foolish market wrap-up with just one click. http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157951 _________________________________________________________________ EDITOR'S PICK David Braze (a.k.a. Mr. Data Sleuth) uncovers facts that indicate you should be skeptical of financial assertions unaccompanied by supporting data -- regardless of the source. http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157952 _______________________________________________________________ -News & Commentary http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157953 -Fool Community http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157954 -Post of the Day http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157955 -Latest Fribble http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157956 -Latest Market Numbers http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157957 ____________________________________________________________ My Portfolio: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157958 My Discussion Boards: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157959 My Fool: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157960 Fool.com Home: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157961 My E-Mail Settings: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157962 Sponsored By: BUYandHOLD Hey Fool! Want to know the SECRET to long-term investing? Compounding and dollar-cost averaging! Start investing with as little as $20! Just $2.99 per order: http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=157963 WIRELESS 201: FREE PREVIEW Get a sneak peek at this report on Soapbox.com http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=157964 BECOME A FOOL! Get a FREE Investing Guide and more... http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157965 FOOL DIRECT E-MAIL SERVICES Need to change your address or unsubscribe? You can also temporarily suspend mail delivery. Click here: http://www.fool.com/community/freemail/freemaillogin.asp?email=benjamin.rogers @enron.com< Have ideas about how we can improve the Fool Direct or new e-mail products you'd like to see? Try our discussion board: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=157966 ____________________________________________________ © Copyright 2000, The Motley Fool. All rights reserved. This material is for personal use only. Republication and redissemination, including posting to news groups, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of The Motley Fool. . MsgId: msg-25378-B10179294Address.msg-09:14:19(10-17-2000) X-Version: mailer-sender-master,v 1.84 X-Version: mailer-sender-daemon,v 1.84 Message-Recipient: benjamin.rogers@enron.com
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