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from Outstanding Investor Digest's December 29, 1998 edition


THIRD AVENUE FUNDS'
MARTY WHITMAN ET AL.
(continued from preceding page)

    And I suspect there are more than a few good names that we've left out. We can't buy everything, after all.

OID: Again, most of the stocks in this industry group have gone up a ton. Are these still cheap for a reason?
     Jenson: The group has come back a fair amount. However, they were extremely oversold. The industry actually seems to be recovering a bit. At least there's a more positive tone.
    And Joe Reinhardt of ESIO spoke at our conference. He didn't talk about their quarter. But he said things in the industry seem to be bottoming. He said, for example, that he recently sat down with a salesperson whose goal was $20 million of bookings who came in with $200 million of prospective bookings. So his sales force isn't euphoric, or anywhere near euphoric, but they're feeling better.
    We've heard the same kind of thing from other folks in the area. And the stock prices seem to be looking ahead.

OID: But there's nothing wrong with any of these companies that you're aware of that might justify their prices being as depressed as they are?
     Jensen: Aside from those that we've discussed, nothing that we can find.

    Lie: I don't think they're cheap for a reason. I just think companies like Applied Materials and KLA-Tencor moved first and that the smaller companies will follow, but only after a lag. That's all.

    Whitman: And if so, their biggest negative is basically their lack of current earnings.

OID: In that case, sign us up. We resonciled ourselves with that negative years ago.

SELECTED FUNDAMENTAL/VALUATION DATA
ON SOME OF THE SECURITIES MENTIONED




Company

C.P. Clare Corp. [CPCL]
Electroglas, Inc. [EGLS]
FSI Int'l. [FSII]
GaSonics Int'l. [GSNX]
Lam Research [LRCX]
Silicon Valley Grp. [SVGI]
Speedfam Int'l. [SFAM]

Stock Price
12/24/98
($/Share)


5.63

12.00

10.25


8.06


17.63


10.81


16.38


Book
Value
($/Share)


8.64

9.50

8.55


5.32


12.78


18.06


17.89


Price
to
Book


0.65

1.26

1.20


1.52


1.38


0.60


0.92


Net
Cash
($/Share)


0.50

6.64

2.73


2.12


(0.22)


4.70


8.11

Cash
as % of
Stock Pr.


0.089

0.554

0.266


0.262


(0.013)


0.435


0.495


Peak
Earn
($/Share)


0.89

1.88

1.24


1.14


3.76


1.94


1.25

Price to
Peak
EPS


6.4

6.4

8.3


7.1


4.7


5.6


13.1


Peak
Sales
($/Share)


16.64

8.58

13.19


8.96


34.39


19.65


11.49

Price to
Peak
Sales


0.338

1.399

0.777


0.900


0.512


0.550


1.425



Data
as of


9/27/98

9/30/98

11/28/98


9/30/98


9/30/98


6/30/98


8/31/98



THE PRECEDING WAS EXCERPTED
FROM OUR 26-PAGE FEATURE WITH:

THIRD AVENUE FUNDS'
MARTY WHITMAN ET AL.

For additional information
you may contact:

THIRD AVENUE VALUE FUND
767 Third Avenue
New York, New York 10017

(800) 443-1021


Page 19 of 19

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