STOCKS TO WATCH: E.piphany, IBM, NeoMagic and Oracle

E.piphany shares will be fun to watch after the Internet software developer announced that it had signed on three new corporate customers to its stable, including Expedia Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE), Promotions.com Inc. (Nasdaq: PRMO) and E-Stamp Corp. (Nasdaq: ESTM).

All three new clients said they will use E.piphany software to gain rapid insight into their customers' behavior. E.piphany software will extract and analyze customer data to help companies better understand customer preferences so they can adjust their business models accordingly.

Its shares closed up 20 1/4 to 170 1/4 Friday.

Big Blue shares could be headed south Tuesday after Friday's report from Merrill Lynch said half of corporate technology buyers said their spending on IBM computer hardware is likely to decline this year, according to a report released by the top U.S. brokerage on Friday.

"Hardware continues to be IBM's weak point,'' analyst Steven Milunovich wrote of the survey of 50 American and 20 European chief information officers at major corporations.

Computer hardware such as mainframes, workstations, personal computers and data storage equipment generated roughly 40 percent of IBM's $88 billion in 1999 revenues, the Merrill analyst estimated. Investors have been looking for signs of when IBM, the world's largest computer maker, will begin to rebound from a slowdown in spending on new computers that occurred among some large customers, tied to the Year 2000 computer transition.

When asked if their spending on IBM hardware this year is rising or falling, half of respondents said it was falling, 18 percent said it is rising and 32 percent said it was staying the same.

"Although the product set appears to be improving, we think lack of focus is a problem,'' the report said.

IBM shares closed off 4 1/4 to 112 1/2 Friday.

NeoMagic might gain ground Tuesday after falling 3 15/16 to 6 11/16 Friday after the company warned that it foresees lower revenue and market-share numbers. The semiconductor company's first-quarter earnings matched analysts' estimates, but sales declined to $56.6 million from $72 million in the comparable quarter last year.

Investors looking for a chip manufacturer on the cheap may jump in.

The world's largest database-software maker will form an independent company to develop wireless Internet-access technology, and will unveil a partnership tomorrow with Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), the companies said. Oracle shares fell 3 1/16 to 58 9/16 at Friday's close. Motorola fell 2 5/16 to 144 15/16. >