Montgomery Tech Week: Recruitment Double-Crosses, Trivial Attorneys and More

SAN FRANCISCO -- Just who's recruiting whom? NationsBanc invited Stanford University MBA students in hopes of getting them interested enough in the firm to sign up for summer jobs.

Ahmed Datoo, a student who took the investment bank up on its offer, wasn't as interested in a job as the stocks he's invested in, including Amazon.com (AMZN), Broadvision (BVSN), Microsoft (MSFT) and Cisco (CSCO).

Datoo also said he wants to get in contact with many of the presenting companies in hopes of landing a job with one of them. He's particularly eyeing Amazon. "They're unbelievable in e-commerce," said Datoo. "But I'm more interested in their marketing and how they're driving people to their site."

Is his host on the list of prospective employers? "Montgomery wants us to come work for them," he said, "but I want to work in tech."

-- Suzanne Galante

Did Somebody Say .com?

InfoSpace.com's (INSP) presentation was one of the most crowded on the first day of the NationsBanc Montgomery Tech Week conference. Reporters and fund managers were packed into a tiny salon. Because the company just came public Dec. 15, 1998, the presentation was a getting-to-know-you overview of the Redmond, Wash.-based database company.

One star financial reporter actually dozed off during the presentation (we'll save his career for another day by not naming him). To those who stayed awake, CEO Naveen Jain described his company as essentially a phone book on steroids. A partnership with local Yellow Pages companies provides InfoSpace.com with far-flung sales forces.

Jain cited the example of attorneys who pay to have their name come up first in a search for "attorneys." With so many sites linking to InfoSpace.com's database, these attorneys place one ad to facilitate Net-wide ambulance chasing. "If you look for an attorney," says Jain. "Whether you go to Wall Street Journal, Netscape (NSCP) or Playboy.com, you will find the attorney that pays to be a preferred listing."

Quipped one fund manager: "Who's looking for an attorney on the Playboy site?"

(When TSC typed a search for San Francisco attorneys on Infospace.com's site, at the top of the list was ... drumroll ... "20Questions.com," which bills itself as "the most interesting and comprehensive trivia site on the Internet!" Go figure.)

But who's quibbling? With Net stocks on fire and so many money managers packed in to hear this story, it's clear that the Street's interest in Net stocks is not waning. The stock is up better than 10% today.

-- Cory Johnson

A Cap for the Cap Equipment Stocks?

In September, when chip-equipment makers last came to a NationsBanc Montgomery investment conference, the interest among money managers was slight. Those who attended chip-equipment sessions were wondering when stocks like bellwether Applied Materials (AMAT) would ever see a lift.

Six months later, the rooms are packed and attendees are wondering when the stocks will top off. AMAT, which was trading around 24 in September, closed at 62 1/8 on Monday.

"Right now we think they might be ahead of themselves," said Bryan Agbabian, a fund manager with Brookhaven Capital Management, a contrarian fund that stayed out of the recent cap equipment stock frenzy. "Getting in right now...." Agbabian shook his head.

Montgomery analyst Brett Hodess, who was the first analyst to call the cap equipment bottom, said investors shouldn't sell yet -- at least not the industry leaders. The chip industry is gearing up for a revolution in materials, which will stretch out the equipment sector's historical two-year up-cycle to three years. "You will see some interesting new technologies coming into play," he said.

Strong bets, according to Hodess: Leaders AMAT and Novellus (NVLS) and some value plays such as Speedfam (SFAM).

-- Marcy Burstiner

The People's Right to No

It's inevitable: People want what they can't have. Which explains the news media's reaction to the list of "restricted presentations" at the Montgomery Tech conference.

NationsBanc Montgomery bars the press from several sessions, including TMP Worldwide (TMPW), which runs job site Monster.com. The reason, Montgomery says, is that the companies are in registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Analysts and fund managers, however, are given entree to hear what the companies are up to.

When TSC asked TMP why the press wouldn't be allowed to its session, spokesman Paul Orefice responded with an email: "That should not be! I've alerted my contact at NationsBanc and she's in the process of opening up the presentation to the media as I write this."

And lo, it's now open. Montgomery said that when it submitted the list of presenting companies to its lawyers for review last week, TMP was restricted because of its pending acquisition of Morgan & Banks of Sydney, Australia. Well, the deal was announced last week, and now TMP is free to present to everyone, even the press.

-- Suzanne Galante

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