Fool Portfolio Report
Tuesday, October 3, 1995
The New York Times blindsided The Fool today, printing favorable reviews of the EZ-135 drive, Syquest's throwtogether product designed to compete with Iomega's Zip drive. There's enough commentary on this in today's Iomega folder that we'll just let this one slide by. We're still strong enough believers in Iomega's positioning in the industry, their product offerings, their marketing plan, and their management team that no matter how dubious the research methodology of the NY Times' Science Times section. . . we ain't thinking of parting with our shares. Iomega fell $1 1/8 to $19 3/4, certainly as low as it's been in months.
GE Capital Realty Group, Inc., (GECRG) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase the assets of MacFarlane Partners, L.P., San Francisco, the largest minority-owned, full service real estate advisory firm in the United States. MacFarlane Partners has $1.8 billion in real estate assets under management, which will push GE Capital Realty over $15 billion in real estate assets under management upon completion of the deal. Hey, let's get a word from MF Yorick over on the Industry board on this, eh?!
Applied Materials fell $2 to $97 3/4 and KLA Instruments turned things around in the afternoon, actually rising a quarter-point on the day. We're down 15% in the both of these, and still looking years forward.
And America Online fell $1 1/2, though we think they came out with a not insubstantial press release today. . . though perhaps we ought be named biased on this one:
America Online Introduces Rogue, A New Forum for Cultural Critique: The Motley Fool's Rogue Challenges the Cultural CW
Vienna, VA, October 3, 1995 - America Online, Inc. today announced the launch of Rogue, a unique interactive online service created to examine the realities and myths of contemporary American culture. Dedicated to subverting conventional media wisdom, Rogue delivers an entertaining and compelling look at yesterday, today and tomorrow's television, literature, music, art and politics. Rogue is a service of The AOL Greenhouse(TM), a business unit of America Online designed to assist "infopreneurs" in the creation of unique online content and interactive services for the online medium. Rogue can be found on America Online at Keyword: Rogue.
Rogue's talented staff of writers are dedicated to creating wry, witty, edgy and biting criticism with plenty of opportunity for members to participate and guide the content from discussions about Medicare reform to whether or not Letterman has sold out. Whatever the topic, Rogue plans to facilitate and inspire discussion. Rogue also offers a download library, chatrooms, insta-polls, and a marketplace to purchase Rogue and Fool-ish memorabilia.
"Rogue has the acumen and courage to deal with issues often ignored by the mainstream media," explained Ted Leonsis, President of America Online Services Company. "With Rogue we enhance the editorial integrity of the AOL community by giving it an interactive forum to ask questions not normally asked, discard common assumptions, and objectively examine the complexities of culture."
Rogue is the latest creation of The Motley Fool, one of the hottest content developers in cyberspace. The Fools created a witty and irreverent personal finance forum that has become one of AOL's most widely accessed services and Follywood another successful Greenhouse forum that takes on the film industry.
Rogue fosters intelligent debate and gets members involved with compelling analyses of pop and high culture. Deliberately eclectic in its coverage, Rogue endeavors to reflect the American experience where the sublime and banal constantly collide. From its deadly serious pathbreaking series on AIDS to a seemingly frivolous review of television's quirkiest personalities, Rogue is committed to examining the complexity and richness of what really comprises American life.
"Our vision for Rogue is to offer a vehicle for analyzing the crazy collage of the highs and lows of the American experience," explained Jim Surowiecki, editor of Rogue. "The AOL Greenhouse provides the ideal context for us. They let us take chances and develop content that could only exist in cyberspace."
A Crash Course in the Unconventional
Rogue includes a wide variety of features designed to fuel debate and spark informed discussion. A sampling of program offerings include:
Art: In the Rogue's Gallery, online members will view works of a painter, sculptor or photographer whose unique and compelling artwork may be relatively unknown but worthy of attention.
Television: Find out what's on tonight and what Rogue thinks of it. Consumer Retorts offers acerbic insights into the advertising industry. The 16th Minute, a clever and witty excursion into the ephemeral world of fame, uncovers what became of sitcom/drama stars of the late seventies and early eighties.
Music: Identify with the struggles of talented, unknown bands as they rise from obscurity to an unknown future in Garageland. Read Rogue's reviews of the best and most innovative bands in America, bands the mainstream press hasn't even mentioned yet. Visit the Rogue's favorite music web sites.
Politics: In The Bill, Rogue will adopt bills currently before Congress and follow their progress (or lack thereof) week by week, in order to demystify the legislative process and illuminate how special interests shape laws for the private good versus the common good.
Books: Avid readers on AOL will enjoy Rogue's Dust Jacket Reviews - a cynical review of the breathless prose found on the dust jackets of the NY Times best-seller books. Hello Mr. Clancy offers up-close and personal discussions with authors unlike those available in any other medium. The Rogue poses challenging questions about literary, social, cultural, and political influences on contemporary literature -- the kind bookclub readers and literature professors would ask.
Games: For fun-loving competitive types, Rogue presents Today's Pitch, where members get the chance to win free online time by answering predictive questions about everything from Newt Gingrich's next speech to Tom Clancy's next novel; The TV Game, a predictive game in which contestants predict what will happen on a particular show that week, i.e. how many times Homer will say "Doh!"on the Simpsons!; and Tour de Web, a trivia game that sends players out on the World Wide Web searching for answers.
Drop by Rogue, if you haven't. We think you're in for a treat.
- Tom Gardner, 10/03/95
AMER -1 1/2
AMAT -2
CHV + 3/8
GE - 3/8
GPS - 1/8
IOMG -1 1/8
KLAC + 1/4
RIDE - 5/8
S + 3/8
SNIC - 1/4
Day Month Year History FOOL -1.60% 0.48% 45.53% 61.59% S&P 500 +0.11% 3.64% 26.80% 27.04% NASDAQ -0.70% 0.03% 35.71% 41.69% Rec'd # Security In At Now Change 8/5/94 340 AmOnline 14.55 64.25 341.71% 5/23/95 510 Ride Inc. 9.91 19.88 100.62% 5/17/95 335 Iomega Corp 15.11 19.75 30.68% 8/5/94 165 Sears 28.93 36.13 24.89% 4/20/95 155 The Gap 32.55 35.88 10.22% 8/11/95 95 GenElec 57.91 63.13 9.00% 8/11/95 110 Chevron 49.00 48.75 -0.51% 8/24/95 130 KLA Instrm 44.71 38.25 -14.45% 8/24/95 50 AppldMatl 115.05 97.75 -15.04% 12/23/94 340 SonicSol 14.48 10.38 -28.36% Rec'd # Security Cost Value Change 8/5/94 340 AmOnline 4945.56 21845.00 $16899.44 5/23/95 510 Ride Inc. 5052.44 10136.25 $5083.81 5/17/95 335 Iomega Corp 5063.13 6616.25 $1553.12 8/5/94 165 Sears 4772.65 5960.63 $1187.98 4/20/95 155 The Gap 5045.25 5560.63 $515.38 8/11/95 95 GenElec 5501.87 5996.88 $495.01 8/11/95 110 Chevron 5389.99 5362.50 -$27.49 8/24/95130 KLA Instrm 5812.49 4972.50 -$839.99 8/24/95 50 AppldMatl 5752.49 4887.50 -$864.99 12/23/94 340 SonicSol 4924.18 3527.50 -$1396.68 CASH $5927.47 TOTAL $80793.10 Transmitted: 95-10-03
