A major deal in the Internet sector was about the only thing investors could get excited about Monday during a light trading session.
Monday marked the lightest trading day of the year on the NYSE and the Nasdaq Composite came within one point of setting a record high.
internet.com’s Internet Stock Index rose 1.60, or .32 percent, to 496.99, the Nasdaq Composite was up 15.97 to 2,885.59 and the Dow Jones industrial
average inched-up 5.39 to 10,809.02.
CMGI (CMGI)
announced that it will purchase AdForce (ADFC)
, which develops ad serving and profiling technology. The price is
about $500 million in CMGI stock. AdForce was up 3/4 to 20-1/4 and CMGI
rose 3-7/16 to 83-7/16.
Commerce One (CMRC
) surged 24-13/16 to 124-7/8.
Mark Verbeck, an analyst with U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, made positive
comments on the business-to-business services provider.
As expected, FairMarket, Microsoft
Corp. (MSFT)
, Excite@Home Corp. (ATHM)
and Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch (TMCS)
officially announced a pact to create a new online auction service.
This was bad news for the shares of eBay
Inc. (EBAY)
. The stock fell 5 to 136 after slumping as low as 130-5/16.
Two leaders were doing well on analyst upgrades. Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO)
gained 5-1/4 to 168-3/8 and Priceline.com Inc. (PCLN)
leaped 5-15/16 to 64-3/16.
Sara Zeilstra of Warburg Dillon Read Monday raised her rating on Priceline
to a “strong buy” from a “buy” and set a $125 12-month price target. Also,
US Bancorp Piper Jaffray reiterated its “strong buy” on Yahoo!.
As for the Net leaders, BroadVision Corp. (BVSN)
was up 10-7/8 to 127-5/8, RealNetworks (RNWK)
rose 7-1/8 to 100-13/16 and Ariba
(ARBA)
increased 3-1/8 to 134-1/2.
CyberSource (CYBS) was up 3-1/2
to 38-1/4 . Kevin Yen of Adams, Harkness & Hill, initiated coverage of
CyberSource with an “accumulate” rating and a 12-month price target of $45.
Razorfish Inc. (RAZF
) had jumped 6-3/4 to 37-5/8. The Internet design company was raised to
a “buy” from “outperform” by Lehman Brothers.
VeriSign Inc. (VRSN)
was up 5-3/4 to 116 after Credit Suisse First Boston’s Todd Raker
initiated coverage with a “buy” rating. He considers the company to be the
clear leader in the digital certificate market.
Phone.com (PHCM)
was up 7-3/16 to 142-15/16. The company signed a distribution deal
with network operator Southern LINC.
On the IPO front, the online wedding company The Knot filed to go public.
The lead underwriter is CS First Boston.
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