Fool Portfolio Report
Thursday, October 2, 1997
by David Forrest ([email protected])

ALEXANDRIA, VA (Oct. 2, 1997) -- Howdy, Fools! TMF Bogey pinch-hitting for the folks in portfolio-land today. For those who don't know me, I manage our message boards, games, chat, and customer service. If anyone out there has a suggestion to improve any of these areas (or a note of praise for the Fools who help me), please drop me a note right away. The only thing I care about is that the people who come to our little corner of cyberspace every day are happy, having fun, learning from friends, and just enjoying themselves. So, make sure to join in on the message boards, pop into a chat, play our cool games, or get your questions answered!

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Now, on with the countdown.

America Online (NYSE: AOL) -- Up $1 1/16, AOL announced today that they are suing a company in Las Vegas for sending out too much cyber-spam mail to AOL users. Apparently, "Over the Air" (the Vegas company) has been spamming AOL users with solicitations to visit a "Cyber Strip-Show" and AOL executives are dancing around in a frenzy trying to figure out ways to address all of this....er....um.... UNDRESSING! While this court case won't have much effect on America Online's financials, it does send a pretty clear message that users like you and me are sick and tired of getting junk e-mail. More importantly, the decision will set another legal precedent in the development of the Internet as a global communications network. Is this a First Amendment issue or just a case of AOL providing a service to its users? I asked a few Fools in our chat room today.

TMF Bogey: Hey there, does anyone have any thoughts on AOL suing the cyber stripper?
TMF Spirit: Hello Bogey..first I head about it..tell us more
TMF Bogey: AOL is suing a spammer who is sending around e-mail...
TMF Spirit: Bogey well they are doing that...I got some last week
TMF Bogey: advertising a "cyber-strip show".
Bs 294: and?
TMF Bogey: Well, I'm just curious if anyone thinks they are wasting their time? After all, does the person have the right to send that mail?
CMcfarl: Yeah. I got the E-mail too. Trying to remember why I should be interested !
Bs 294: a 1st amendment thing
TMF Bogey: Bs, exactly.
TMF Spirit: Maybe but are they also avoiding paying AOL for AD space..there is a conflict there.
Bs 294: TMF I get that stuff all the time in email and delete it
TMF Bogey: Bs, so would you argue that the user should have the choice to delete it?
TMF Spirit: Bs, they are avoiding buying ad space that way
TMF Bogey: I'm just wondering if AOL isn't overstepping their bounds or if they are providing a service
Bs 294: if they are bypassing AOL,this will be decided in court
TMF Bogey: So, if you had to choose, would you prefer to get the mail and delete it or not get it at all?
Bs 294: If AOL provides the service,why don't they pay like we do?
TMF Bogey: Bs, good point.
Bs 294: they are using a different way to email these?
TMF Spirit: See the cyberstrippers just came online and copied the names of users on the boards
TMF Spirit: and then sent out email to avoid paying AOL for an ad.
TMF Bogey: Pretty clever actually. Okay, thanks Fools!

Lucent Technology (NYSE: LU) -- It's a crying shame the Fool Portfolio only owns 42 shares of this little gem, huh? Up $2 7/16 to $85 5/16, Lucent has been an awesome performer. Today, Lucent sold some assets from its payphone business to Elcotel, Inc. (Nasdaq: ECTL). On top of this, the telecom world is still buzzing about Worldcom/British Telecom/MCI and that can only enhance the excitement for other stocks in the telephony industry. How much consolidation will occur? Will it just be long-distance or are we on the verge of a far greater consolidation phase?

Other News/Views

Chevron (NYSE: CHV) was downgraded by one of Wall Street's wise today, lowering the shares about $0.75.

ATC Telecommunications (Nasdaq: ATCT) -- Boy, what a pig this thing has been, huh? Another quarter goes by and they're still looking sloppy. Larger than expected loss, but with a bright outlook??? Always the way. Well, this Fool can't read the minds of our Fool Portfolio managers, but if it were my decision to make, this little darling would be thrown on to the Boulevard of Broken Dreams alongside James Dean, Elvis, and Marilyn Monroe. :) [Just don't tell the boys I said that!]

Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) had one of its least volatile days in recent memory, closing down a mere 1/8th of a point. I can't figure out whether this is going to be a monster winner because of it's early participation in the growth of the Internet, or if they'll get cannibalized by 100 other online bookstores. There's no shortage of fiery opinions on our Amazon message board though. Make sure you check out the conversation from the past few weeks.

KLA-TENCOR (Nasdaq: KLAC) closed up $1 3/4 at $66 5/8 tonight with no news. The other semiconductor equipment manufacturers, Applied Materials, Novellus, and Lam Research were all trading higher today as well.

Let me close by thanking the portfolio Fools (Jeff Fischer, David Gardner, and Tom Gardner) for letting me pinch-hit tonight. It's great fun. I hope that all of you are enjoying yourself in Fooldom and that you'll let us know if you aren't.

Take care,

David

Drip Portfolio -- Drip!
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Boring Portfolio -- Boring holds Cisco, Oracle.
Fool Four Portfolio -- 23% annually, historically.
Market News -- All the News, early.
Port Tracker -- Update your portfolio daily.
Daily Double -- Good business?
Daily Trouble -- Cut in half! A good deal?
Fribble -- A fun lesson from readers.

TODAY'S NUMBERS
Stock  Change    Bid
----------------
AMZN  -  3/8   47.75
AOL   +1 1/16  74.13
T     -  11/16 43.56
ATCT  +  1/16  4.06
CHV   -  11/16 84.44
DJT     ---    10.25
GM    +  1/4   68.19
INVX  -  1/8   31.13
IOM   -  5/8   25.25
KLAC  +1 3/4   66.63
LU    +2 7/16  85.31
MMM   +  3/4   95.13
COMS  +  1/16  50.56



      
    
    
                   Day   Month    Year  History
        FOOL     -0.01%  -1.37%  24.15% 231.34%
        S&P:     +0.53%   1.39%  29.66% 109.52%
        NASDAQ:  +0.72%   0.99%  31.86% 136.39%


     Rec'd    #  Security     In At       Now    Change
   8/5/94   355 AmOnline       7.27     74.13   919.20%
  5/17/95   980 Iomega Cor     2.52     25.25   901.98%
  10/1/96    42 LucentTech    47.62     85.31    79.17%
  8/11/95   125 Chevron       50.28     84.44    67.92%
  8/24/95   130 KLA-Tencor    44.71     66.63    49.01%
  8/12/96   110 Minn M&M      65.68     95.13    44.84%
  8/12/96   280 Gen'l Moto    51.97     68.19    31.20%
   9/9/97   290 Amazon.com    38.22     47.75    24.93%
  6/26/97   325 Innovex       27.71     31.13    12.33%
  8/12/96   130 AT&T          39.58     43.56    10.07%
  8/13/96   250 3Com Corp.    46.86     50.56     7.90%
  4/30/97 -1170 *Trump*        8.47     10.25   -21.03%
 10/22/96   600 ATC Comm.     22.94      4.06   -82.29%

     Rec'd    #  Security     In At     Value    Change
   8/5/94   355 AmOnline    2581.87  26314.38 $23732.51
  5/17/95   980 Iomega Cor  2594.53  24745.00 $22150.47
  8/12/96   280 Gen'l Moto 14552.49  19092.50  $4540.01
  8/11/95   125 Chevron     6285.61  10554.69  $4269.08
  8/12/96   110 Minn M&M    7224.44  10463.75  $3239.31
  8/24/95   130 KLA-Tencor  5812.49   8661.25  $2848.76
   9/9/97   290 Amazon.com 11084.24  13847.50  $2763.26
  10/1/96    42 LucentTech  1999.88   3583.13  $1583.25
  6/26/97   325 Innovex     9005.62  10115.63  $1110.01
  8/13/96   250 3Com Corp. 11714.99  12640.63   $925.64
  8/12/96   130 AT&T        5145.11   5663.13   $518.02
  4/30/97 -1170*Trump*     -9908.50 -11992.50 -$2084.00
 10/22/96   600 ATC Comm.  13761.50   2437.50-$11324.00

                              CASH  $29541.35
                             TOTAL $165667.91