Institutional investors think Netscape could be the Microsoft of the Internet, and they’re willing to bet on it.
Predictor: Smith, Kathleen
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 San Francisco Examiner article, reporter Tom Abate covers the initial public offering of stock in Netscape, quoting investment counselors, including Kathleen Smith. Abate writes: ”Even before its shares went on sale, institutional investors bid up the price of Netscape Communications Corp., making it the hottest initial public offering on Wall St. … ‘It’s the hottest IPO we’ve seen in the last few years; it’s got all the Internet buzz,’ said Kathleen Smith of Renaissance Capital, a Greenwich, Conn., institutional investment firm. Best known for its Netscape Navigator, the leading point-and-click computer program for ‘browsing’ the Internet’s World Wide Web, Netscape is in such demand on Wall Street that traders predict the stock will begin selling at least $5 above its opening price … ‘You have to have a stomach of iron to look at the valuation of this one,’ Smith said. ‘But institutional investors think Netscape could be the Microsoft of the Internet, and they’re willing to bet on it.'”
Date of prediction: August 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: San Francisco Examiner
Title, headline, chapter name: Investors Scramble for a Piece of Netscape; Opening Price for Money-Losing Company’s Shares Went from $14 to $28
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=7e2f856f53c0421f8748dc77f57bd9ec&_docnum=15&wchp=dGLbVtb-lSlAl&_md5=1fb40f42b528f9735c4578c9359642f4
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Edwards, Elizabeth