Chris Nerney

Last summer I wrote about the prospects for Phone.com , the company that makes software allowing wireless telephones to connect to the Internet. Back then I observed that “investor enthusiasm for Phone.com is premature” because the wireless market was nascent and formidable competitors lurked in the mists. I also wrote that PHCM “may be the […]

Being first to market with a product or service known as “first-mover” advantage — is often seen as a critical step for Internet companies hoping to dominate their respective sectors. However, if barriers to entry are low, “first-mover” advantage doesn’t help much if a well-heeled competitor targets superior resources toward your customer base. That has […]

The market isn’t waiting to find out how much – not if – the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates. The Nasdaq soared in early trading Tuesday, as Internet stocks in particular posted strong gains through early afternoon. It’s a seemingly unusual reaction to the pending pain of an expected half-point increase in the Fed […]

There’s nothing like a strong buyout rumor involving major ‘Net players to get the adrenaline pumping on a Monday. Especially when one of the principals – Lycos – was the star of last year’s most spectacular (and melodramatic) failed merger, in which entertainment mogul Barry Diller’s USA Networks walked away from an announced acquisition of […]

When shares of Internet sites network Go2Net jumped 27 percent Thursday after its Authorize.Net payment processing unit began offering a service that distributes business Web sites to hundreds of search engines, I thought the market was over-reacting. Investors apparently now agree. In early trading Friday, GNET had given back one-third of Thursday’s considerable gains, even […]

It is a humbled giant, its still-hefty market capitalization towering over those of the numerous Internet Lilliputians that have accompanied it on this spring’s unpleasant ride down the stock charts. However, unlike dozens of small-cappers that lack the cash reserves to weather a prolonged market slump, start-up incubator Internet Capital Group is built for the […]

Another earnings season is behind us, and while it’s clear that more and more Internet companies are crossing over the line into profitability, most continue to operate at a loss. Yet is seems hardly a quarterly report goes by without a company trumpeting record revenue growth. Indeed, failure to at least double revenues over the […]

In the wake of numerous flameouts, the Internet IPO market essentially has been grounded, with postponements coming almost daily and only one launch slated for this week. And we may not even see that IPO, from XML portal server provider Sequoia Software, should company executives and lead underwriter Lehman Brothers opt to wait for better […]

Internet hacker attacks usually result in two things: Lots of hyperventilated media coverage and a run-up in ‘Net security stocks. That’s why some investors who hoped to cash in right away on last week’s “I Love You” e-mail virus might feel about as lucky as the Filipino suspect arrested in Manila over the weekend. Through […]

Last Friday I wrote there were clear signs that the spring correction which sent nearly half of all Internet stocks down more than 50 percent for the year had played itself out. One week later, the bottoming-out is beginning to look like a comeback. For the first time since January, all 12 sectors listed in […]

A couple of months ago I wrote about the initial public offering of Register.com (RCOM) Register.com, one of a number of companies now challenging domain registration market leader Network Solutions (NSOL) Network Solutions. Despite the daunting task of competing with NSI, which until last year was the sole Internet domain registrar (with government blessing), eager […]

Infrastructure companies have been among the most popular among investors in the past two years because they address a core problem: The need for faster and more reliable connectivity to handle the tsunami of data flooding global networks. Besides straining the ability of networks to handle the explosion of IP traffic, this tidal wave of […]