Ryan Jacob Companies Quotations

We're focusing on companies that will be long-term players on the Internet.

Software.net has the potential of being a leader in this space and there are clear comparisons to Egghead.com, and also to some of the online companies that sell CDs. They're really not that much different.

Really, the Internet is broader than one sector. We're going to focus on companies that focus the least on technology. Tech companies just are not attractive. They are too competitive, and they have predatory pricing.

Valuations in general for e-commerce companies have been historically higher than we've been comfortable with and they have low operating margins. So it's an area we've shied away from.

Unfortunately, we still have Iraq dominating the news and any changes in the situation there will have a big affect -- although I think we are in a period now that's seasonally strong for the market, especially in technology. So, I think everyone's going to be very focused on how companies are doing in this fourth quarter and then, obviously, the holiday season.

When companies first come public, there's a lot of hype, anticipation. The company is out hyping the IPO on a road show and investors get very excited and they might pay a bit higher than they may in normal situations.

Everyone's expecting, and should expect, that these companies will continue to post very impressive gains. A lot of these companies are still growing 30-50 percent per quarter. There will be other issues that people will be looking at. With Yahoo!, it may not be just revenues, it may be page views. With an Amazon, it may not just be revenues, it may be number of new customers they've acquired over the last quarter.

The biggest change in the past five years is that you can find very reasonably priced companies and most are making money. That's obviously a big change from the late 90's when these companies were just starting out.

The IPO market right now is very weak. However, when you have a deal this size and this level of recognition, a blue chip company, generally, companies like this can supersede market conditions.