[BusinessTeam] UPDATE : Yahoo to launch phone access portal

Message-ID: <6B75EF096AE0BE428B8CEDEA89C5F6327822A3@exchange01.lab49.com> · Tue Oct 10 20:52:22 2000 UTC

UPDATE : Yahoo to launch phone access portal 
by George A. Chidi Jr., IDG News Service\Boston Bureau 
October 10, 2000, 08:19 	
  <http://www.idg.net/english/images/spacer.gif>
<http://www.idg.net/english/images/spacer.gif>
<http://www.idg.net/english/images/spacer.gif>
<http://www.idg.net/english/images/spacer.gif> 	

BOSTON (10/10/2000) - With its quarterly earnings announcement due later
in the day, Yahoo introduced a suite of free telephone services Tuesday,
providing subscribers access to their e-mail, financial information, news
and sports headlines over the phone as well as free long-distance phone
service through the Internet. 

Users can dial into the Yahoo by Phone toll-free number to hear e-mail in
their Yahoo! Mail account read to them using text-to-voice speech
synthesizers. The service also delivers personalized weather, stock quotes
and headline news, the company said.

"We've noticed a lot of the major portals have been moving toward this,"
said Emily Meehan, an analyst from the technology market research company
Yankee Group. "(America Online) is also moving toward this, for consumers
to get their information through alternate devices." In September, AOL
bought the startup voice portal Quack.com, with the intent of launching
voice-enabled Internet services.

The key for long-term success in phone-access Internet applications will
be quality of service, Meehan said. "It's in an experimental phase for
consumers right now. It's nice to have right now, but most people have
phones right next to their PC's."

Yahoo has also modified its instant messenger application to use
Net2Phone's free VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service. Computer
users with a microphone, speakers, a modem and a sound card can use the
Internet to make phone calls, bypassing long-distance charges. Net2Phone
is one of several companies offering consumer VoIP software and services.

Yahoo announced in March that it made a $150 million investment in
Net2Phone. Since then, Net2Phone's stock share price has fallen from the
$60 range to near 52-week lows in the $20 range in October. Its revenue
has doubled in the last year, but its net loss has increased more than
tenfold in the same period.

After a raft of profit warnings from technology companies washed onto the
stock market's shores in the past weeks, investors await Yahoo's
third-quarter earnings report, due after the Tuesday close of the New York
Stock Exchange. Yahoo stock sold at $86.81 in early Tuesday trading, up
$1.06 from Monday's close.

Yahoo can be reached at http://www.yahoo.com <http://www.yahoo.com/> /.
Net2Phone can be reached at http://www.net2phone.com.

Luke Flemmer
VP Strategic Ventures
nano
phone: (212) 402-7870
fax:      (212) 430-6374
www.nano.com <http://www.nano.com/> 