Robbie Stephens Conference: J.D. Edwards Gets Honesty Points

SAN FRANCISCO - Poor Rick Allen. It was pretty tough for the J.D. Edwards (JDEC Quote) CFO to face investors at the BancBoston Robertson Stephens conference Wednesday.

But Allen appeared, head down and apologetic, and immediately tried to offer investors hope about the company's recent slump. Hoping to tap into the Internet theme, Allen touted that the company's products are 100% HTML and Java ready.

But Allen is so honest, his attempts at hype gave way to admissions of more company blunders. "We have a really good Internet story here, but we haven't been very good at telling it," he confessed. He then addressed J.D. Edwards' late entry into the Internet industry. "There's an advantage to being late to market -- being a little self-critical -- our technology is fresh."

One Bay-area fund manager who looks for beaten-down companies, speaking after the company's presentation, said, "You have to admit, they might be a little slow, but they are an extremely honest group."

"He was very much, 'Mea culpa, mea culpa.' They didn't try to hide anything."

The fund manager said that was very much unlike Documentum (DCTM Quote). "By their presentation, you would have thought there was nothing wrong," he said. But "they really got grilled in the breakout session because they wouldn't explain exactly why orders didn't get closed," he said.

"First, they were in denial and then they admitted things and got defensive," said the fund manager, who added that he used to own Documentum shares but he doesn't now. "And I'm really glad about that."

Documentum's stock is down 63% this year as the document management software company has guided Wall Street's estimates for 1999 lower when it last reported earnings.

-- Medora Lee

1-888-QUIT-AOL

That is the phone number that EarthLink (ELNK Quote) receives many of its new customers from. "AOL (AOL Quote) owns the new market for newbies," says president and CEO Charles "Garry" Betty, while 70% of EarthLink's new users "come with previous experience."

And many are coming from AOL, Betty told a group of investors at the BancBoston conference Wednesday. The company also offers its customers a monthly guide to the Internet called "bLink" and the "EarthLink guide for AOL graduates."

The company ended the fourth quarter with more than one million subscribers, and it's working to boost the incremental revenue generated from each one. At the end of the fourth quarter, EarthLink was generating about 68 cents for each member in addition to monthly access charges. Betty expects that incremental revenue figure to reach $1 by mid-1999 through electronic greeting cards, travel planners and other e-commerce services.

In 1998, EarthLink improved its gross margins from 53% to 58%, and Betty says those will climb to 63% by the end of 1999.

-- Suzanne Galante

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

While Microsoft (MSFT Quote) canceled its Wednesday afternoon presentation at the conference because its representative was detained in Washington, D.C., testifying in the Microsoft antitrust case, BancBoston Robertson Stephens was polling its attendees on the impact of the trial and other pressing investing questions.

So, reader, what's this got to do with you? Well, since so many of you have said that reading TheStreet.com is sometimes just like being there, we thought we'd get all virtual on you.

1. What is the impact of the DOJ case against Microsoft?

Not significant May impair Microsoft slightly I expect to see a significant decline in Microsoft's aggressiveness

See Results

2. Will the antitrust cast against Intel have a long-term effect?

No Yes

See Results

Now, if you're still jonesing for the real conference experience, print up the results of the poll and leave the completed form on your chair (that what they asked for here at the San Francisco Ritz-Carlton). Thank you for your participation.