Report Card: Chuck Phillips

Chuck Phillips Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
	Report Card 1* Overall rank 1* Rank by institutions 22* Rank by stock picking Makes money for me Saves me from disaster Makes me think Tells the truth Meaningful service, not overkill Well-connected *Out of 30. Best star rating is 3 stars. Click here for our methodology.
1st Place Application Software

Biography

B.S., United States Air Force Academy; M.B.A., Hampton University; J.D., New York Law School. Phillips joined Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in December 1994 to cover Internet and enterprise software companies. Prior to that, he followed enterprise software at Kidder Peabody, Soundview Financial and the Bank of New York.

Industry Outlook and Style

The Winners

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Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's April 2000 report, The B2B Internet Report: Collaborative Commerce, announced "The time is right for B2B -- let's light the candle." Written by Chuck Phillips and Mary Meeker, it takes an in-depth look at the broad and thoroughly pummeled business-to-business landscape, highlighting a number of key themes. (Phillips was not available for an interview.)

With more than 200 million Internet users, "The timing is now," Phillips wrote. "Infrastructure is in place and company managements feel an urgency to act post-Y2K." In his opinion, B2B exchanges will dramatically change the way commerce is conducted. Phillips likens this to the second industrial revolution. And with the "market transparency" these exchanges create, he sees a win-win situation for both buyers and suppliers.

Buyers, Phillips observed, get more uniform pricing, real-time order information and more control over procurement, while sellers can "more intelligently plan production, reduce inventory, customize promotions for buyers, and lower their order processing costs." Furthermore, the broader audience created by the Internet will allow micromarkets to proliferate.

Which stocks will benefit from these trends? Phillips says that he continues to favor Agile (AGIL Quote), which helps companies to exchange information with each other about the manufacture and supply of products over the Internet, and Ariba (ARBA Quote), which supplies Internet-based business-to-business electronic commercial solutions for operating resources. He also likes Ventro (VNTR Quote), which provides an Internet-based solution for buying products from suppliers and reselling them to customers, as well as Oracle(ORCL Quote), which has software that helps companies to manage and grow their businesses. (MSDW has investment-banking relationships with Agile, Ariba and Ventro, and has been a market maker for Oracle.)

Although Phillips is bullish overall, he is not completely upbeat. He warned in his April report that "Many B2B business models look suspect and most probably will fail ... exchanges planning to survive off trading volume are in for a rude awakening. Partnering and specialization will be defining elements of the new economy and e-hubs will facilitate the transformation."

Phillips' institutional clients are listening. "Chuck is a user of technology and therefore he has the ability to capture and distribute information better than anyone on the Street," said one voter in TheStreet.com's Analyst Rankings -- Equity 2000. "Best insights on the Street," says another backer. "He knows salespeople and has many industry contacts." A third booster gives even higher praise: Phillips, in his opinion, "is a best of breed analyst in almost every way."

Stock Pick

Favorite stock for next 12 months:
Ariba*


Rate Their Stock Picks:

Which stock do you like best? Phillips*: Ariba Gilbert: E.piphany Sherlund: Amdocs Ltd.
* Gilbert and Sherlund each gave us their top stock pick. Phillips gave us a list of four picks, from which we chose Ariba.