Netscape shares fall dramatically

Netscape stock lost almost 20% of its value today, plummeting to $47 onnews that its stock had been downgraded by Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Inc. and Wessels Arnold & Henderson LLC. This comes on the heels of industryexpectations that Netscape's fourth quarter earnings will be much lowerthan expected, barely exceeding previous forecasts.Adding to concern about the company is news that Chrysler Corporationrecently picked Lotus software over Netscape. Also, Apple Computeryesterday announced that it would bundle Microsoft's Internet Explorerwith every Macintosh it sold. Netscape Navigator is also bundled withnew Macs. Windows NT 4.0, released in July, comes with free Internet Server software that competes with similar software from Netscape. "It's hard for a company to justify the fee for Netscape's software if they are getting it for free from Microsoft,'' said Richard Scocozza, an analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman.In an unrelated story, Netscape announced that it would provide freee-mail mailboxes for people using their new Messenger e-mail client, apart of the upcoming Communicator suite. This offer is available to customers of major ISPs. Netscape also announced that Sports Illustrated,USA Today, and Money magazine would participate in their "InBox Direct"news service