Steve Harmon

ISDEX, The Internet Stock Index, added eight new stocks to the 50-strong basket of industry-representative movers and shakers on Wall Street. How much have they moved? As a group these stocks are up 127% from IPO price, of which many went public only recently. That beats the 24% pop on a geometric average basis for […]

Valuations are relative. Einstein said it thus: “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” And with Internet stocks lately it’s been all value and physics, relatively speaking. Relative to time, market, distance and the caffeine quotient on Wall Street. Latest spin: we took the latest […]

  25-Aug-98 point change % change ISDEX geo. average 124.04 -1.52 -1.21% ISDEX composite 1,674.34 -17.84 -1.05% NASDAQ 1,798.17 7.35 0.41% DJIA 8,602.65 36.04 0.42% CyberCash (NASDAQ:CYCH) reports more than 7,000 merchants use its payment system with more than 280 merchants signing on every two weeks. The firm says transactions it process approach about one […]

Internet security provider CyberGuard Corp. said today that an audit committee found significant accounting errors in a review of its revenue recognition policies of distributors and resellers, and as a result the company will restate third quarter financial results, ending March 31, 1998. CyberGuard said it estimates the restatement will amount to approximately $2.5 million. […]

CyberGuard news that its latest quarter revenue may be overstated, the fact that its auditor KPMG resigned, and two of its execs are suspended (and one resigned) all combined for a stock plunge. Wall Street reacted swiftly, sending CYBG shares down 68% to $1.969 per share on more than 20x average volume. The lesson is […]

  24-Aug-98 point change % change ISDEX geo. average 125.56 -1.50 -1.18% ISDEX composite 1,692.19 -16.13 -0.94% NASDAQ 1,790.82 -6.79 -0.38% DJIA 8,566.61 32.96 0.39% Concentric Network (NASDAQ:CNCX) acquires Anawave, a Web hosting provider to small and medium-sized businesses that hosts more than 10,000 Web sites. The buy is Concentric’s third Web hosting one this […]

First reader up this week writes: “Have you ever done any work on Cendent (NYSE:CD)? They own the sites: Books.com, NetMarket, MusicSpot, GoodMovies, match.com, and rent.net. They also have investments in NetGrocer and possibly other companies? I imagine that these commerce sites are very valuable. It could make an interesting tracking stock.” Reply: We’ve looked […]

  21-Aug-98 point change % change ISDEX geo. average 127.06 -1.74 -1.35% ISDEX composite 1,445.53 -26.06 -1.77% NASDAQ 1,797.61 -34.84 -1.90% DJIA 8,533.65 -77.76 -0.90% Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) agrees to acquire IP address management and access firm American Internet for $56 million stock. NewsEdge (NASDAQ:NEWZ) will deliver its wholesale news feed to Yahoo’s new small business […]

Barnes & Noble’s (NYSE:BKS) decision to spin out 20% of its Web division into a separate public story on Wall Street follows the logic of a company struggling with an old-world, new-world business model, and one caught in the e-tail envy of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), the nimble ‘jack be quick’ of books, and perhaps soon, music […]

Lycos, Inc. announced fourth quarter and fiscal year-end results late Wednesday, posting a smaller than projected loss of $1.6 million or $0.09 per share for the quarter, and revenues of $19 million. The $19 million in revenue represents a gain of 26% from the previous quarter and a 145% surge from the same quarter last […]

  20-Aug-98 point change % change ISDEX geo. average 128.80 -3.45 -2.61% ISDEX composite 1,471.59 -14.50 -0.98% NASDAQ 1,832.45 -10.24 -0.56% DJIA 8,611.41 -81.87 -0.94% Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) plans on spinning off its Web division, BarnesandNoble.com, selling about 20% of the unit to the public. The motivation is clear: rival Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) market value […]

Do Internet companies prop up the balance sheet today (window dressing EPS) for the sake of showing Wall Street that the training wheels are off? Or do they invest in building marketshare at the expense of earnings today in order to have better earnings tomorrow? Can a firm have its earnings and eat its earnings […]