Chris Nerney

Expect a mixed day at best for Internet stocks on Monday as investors focus ahead on Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan’s testimony on Tuesday before the U.S. Senate. ‘Net tickers are looking for help in stopping a downward spiral that began, ironically, almost as soon as the Fed announced on Jan. 31 that it would […]

Internet stocks performed so well in January, it was tempting to think the worst of the ticker slide was over and that the market had found its bottom. But a brutal week for ‘Net companies and their investors raises the sobering spectre that Internet stocks are headed even lower than they finished last year. Through […]

Like January, the 18% gain internet.com’s Internet Stock Index attained in that month is now but a memory. That’s what happens, though, when you go O for February, which is what the ISDEX has done so far. Other than Tuesday, when it merely held even, the ISDEX has been down every trading day this month. […]

It’s almost become a mantra for Internet companies trying to put a spin on bad news: Yes, it was a weak quarter, and the next one or two also should be soft. After that, well, we just don’t have any “visibility.” Of course, when shares were soaring and the economy was cranking, 20/20 clarity practically […]

It may not have had the Sock Puppet dog, but for awhile doomed online toy e-tailer eToys was one of the great branding successes of the early Internet commercial era. It was a short-lived phase, however, and ultimately meaningless, at least as far investors are concerned. For just 16 months after eToys fever hit its […]

With the possible exception of owning a basket of e-tailer stocks, this may be the worst nightmare for Internet (or any other kind of) investors. Shareholders of messaging outsourcing services vendor Critical Path could only watch in horror Friday as trading in CPTH was halted following reports that the company’s board of directors was investigating […]

If only the rest of 2001 could be like January for Internet stocks. In the first month of the new year, internet.com’s Internet Stock Index gained 18% from its Dec. 29 close, easily outpacing the Nasdaq, which itself rose a healthy 12%. Thirty-three of the ISDEX’s 50 member stocks gained in January, with 10 soaring […]

Psst. Psst. Hey, over here! If you own shares of Amazon.com and are thinking of selling, you’d better speak up now while you can, before the company’s Speech Police hunt you down and apply the First Amendment muzzle. OK, that’s (probably) an exaggeration, but I can’t help but wonder whether it’s the illogical next step […]

They’ve experienced a couple of years of irrational exuberance and nearly one year of bubble-bursting. Now it looks as though Internet stocks really may be facing their first genuine economic downturn. Certainly the signs have been there: Even the healthiest dot.coms, companies with legitimate business models, have unleashed a barrage of revenue and earnings warnings […]

Get ready for a run on Internet security stocks. With two high-profile hacker-related scares making global headlines in the past few days, investors can be expected to snap up shares of ‘Net security providers. That’s what happened nearly one year ago, when a series of “denial of service” (DoS) attacks hit Yahoo and several other […]

Now that it finally has merged with Time Warner, it may no longer be appropriate to consider America Online an Internet company. But with more than 24 million subscribers worldwide, AOL-Time Warner clearly is a huge online presence, and a business arrangement with the company can be a big boost for other Internet players. The […]

In a Dec. 26 column on the outlook for ‘Net companies in 2001, I called VeriSign and Exodus Communications the most dominant players in the Internet Services sector, the two to watch as consolidation and cash burn thin out the weak. Investors saw – and heard – plenty from both of these services giants on […]