| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : SEPTEMBER 6, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| BUSINESSWEEK INVESTOR
'It's Always a Good Time to Invest in Technology' Alberto Vilar manages the Amerindo Technology fund, with a return of 98% through July 31 on top of an 85% return in 1998. The 25-year veteran investor specializes in future tech superstars. One prescient buy was America Online--his cost was 36 cents a share. A big fan of Net stocks, Vilar has only 14 issues in his $171 million portfolio, including Yahoo! and eBay. He chatted with Boston correspondent Geoffrey Smith: Q: Is now a good time to invest in a technology fund? A: It's always a good time to invest in technology. We're in the early stages of the third major generation of the technology revolution. The first generation was the mainframe. The second was client-server computing. Now, we are in the Internet stage, and there is nothing on the horizon that will succeed this. A significant amount of global gross domestic product will be digitized through the Net. Every investor needs to participate in this explosion. Q: Why do you focus your fund on such a small number of Net stocks? A: We try to pick tomorrow's winners. The Internet is the future of technology, and if you're not [invested] in the Internet, you're not in technology. Any portfolio that doesn't have Internet stocks is going to underperform. Q: How do you value tech stocks? A: Standard valuation strategies don't apply when you have an explosive new technology. I look at a wide range of things--Internet usage data, market share, top-line growth, margin expansion, whether companies have first-mover advantage. High valuations will not keep me away, but our goal is to get there early. Q: What is the outlook for tech stocks for the rest of the year? A: The bulk of the correction has taken place. At our high point this year, we were up 125%. [Before yearend] we'll blow right through that. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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