Of the Numerous IT companies in the US, which ones will truly prosper?

[nix]

There are so many companies now in the US with inflated PE Ratios, overvalued stock, etc, etc ... Most of these web companies haven't even earned a cent since their inception. It's all about getting market share, or so they say.

Amongst all these giant Web Players, which ones do you think will come out of the internet wars, earning gazillions, and pioneering the next wave of world commerce? Will it be AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, HP, Inktomi, Amazon, E-Bay, Buy.com, etc ?

My own personal pick would be Amazon. I know that this is probably thee most volatile company when it comes to share price, but most Amazon believers say, they have the absolute best Web Customer Service. With their entry into the on-line auction market, plus their affiliate program that effectively extends their sales inventory to over 20 million products, Amazon looks like it has its bases covered.

But skeptics are saying that with all this expansion, especially with the auction part, Amazon's vaunted customer service may take a dive. How do you control now the quality and authenticity of the products and merchants on your site?

In spite of some foreseeable drawbacks, Amazon is still my vote to maintain its status as e-commerce leader. Who's your vote?

[Kamatayan]

Among the existing ones:

1. Yahoo: very well managed and one of the few internet companies which are actually EARNING money...

2. Microsoft: As long as Bill Gates is at the top you can never count them out...

3. AOL: Dominates marketshare right now, Case is also quite a CEO...

4. IBM: Big Blue's always in the thick of things. Dominates mindshare. Sheer size and wide range of products which no one else can match...

I believe there will still be more major players out there just waiting to be discovered...

[jepoy]

Watch out for HP! And i'm not just saying this cos i work for them. We're diving head first into the e-business fad! Despite being late at jumping the internet bandwagon, our new CEO anounced a couple of weeks ago that she is intent on making Hewlett Packard a cyber giant, this is great news cos as history proves, whatever HP wants HP gets. Everyone around here is excited about this little online revolution. In fact, as soon as she made the announcement our stocks skyrocketed. HP's going for world domination folks, better beware.. mwa-ha-ha-ha.

[nix]

There is no doubt in my mind that HP has the resources (you guys are amongst the top 15 biggest companies in the world) to quickly become a monster in the on-line field. But judging from the current state of the entire internet industry, most of the major players are hyped up startups who, in Wall Street's eyes, are cool because they lose money. Supposedly, you are in the right direction when this happens since the web industry now is an entire prepositioning thing.

So I have two questions. The first is, how does HP plan to leapfrog the significant costs (acquisition, infrustructure, and marketing) which are being accrued by big time web players, without pulling down their current profit level? Established 'real world' stocks are evaluated using fundamental appraisal technics which do not apply to internet stocks. It's not cool to lose money when you're a fifty year old company.

My second question is obvious, what kind of web presence will HP be, considering that it is a hardware (predominantly printer ink and machine of course) giant at the moment? Will it be simply selling HP Products on-line (a big market nevertheless, but it will alienate their distributors), or something much larger than that?

[jepoy]

Although more and more HP products are being sold online, I don't think that HP's primary hopes is to be just another giant online store. Carly Fiorina, our CEO, remarked that HP's goal is to "drive the necessary change to make the Internet work for people". Meaning that HP's main focus is on tapping into the internets bloodstream, capitalizing on its opportunities and the proliferation of electronic services.

As to how they intend on "leapfrogging" costs, that my friend is just as much a mystery to me as it is to you. I can only wish that i had an "ear" inside HP's corporate war rooms. :) I do know though that the ball has already started rolling, as is evident by the recent pact's that HP made with big boy's like Amazon.com and AOL.

[Jonny]

There's Texas Instruments.. The shadow company ;) they're always doing well..

any of the the UNIX software developers.. especially LiNuX .... now that open source is accepted around the industry... this will lead to faster, advanced software development

[Sleepless6]

What do you think about the following companies?

CISCO: Someone has to provide the physical infrastructure for the new e-conomy;

And why leave out the non-US companies?

Nokia: This 100+ year old company is currently (since this week) the most valuable company in Europe. By 2002, some people say that the mobile phone (being wireless and portable) will replace the PC as the primary means of getting info.

Sony: If someone can make high-technology accessible for the common tao, they are probably it.

[This message has been edited by Sleepless6 (edited 07-22-2000).]

[pinhead]

www.intel.com (http://www.intel.com)

[zimdude]

Now after the crash of the dotcom's what do you think?

[mamangbumbero]

Wow, a revived thread. Anyway, here's my take on the issue:
<;p>;
I cannot believe that you guys have put the likes of Intel, Microsoft, HP, and Cisco in the growing companies. These guys are BLUE CHIP stocks and are already very much established companies. The ones in trouble are the likes of CDNow.com, and ValueAmerica (did I say very, very much in trouble?) who are doing agressive marketing to get a market share, and still have negative income.

[:Þ]

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Manufacturer of the AMD K7 ATHLON. They just came up with 1.5 Ghz processor. I think sooner or later they will dominate the CPU market.

As for overall, I'd say Microsoft.

[This message has been edited by :Þ (edited 06-04-2000).]