Commerce Is King: Action of Auction Fuels ONSALE

Investors pushed commerce-friendly shares of ONSALE (NASDAQ:ONSL) up 31%
the past week as a new breed of buyer scoured the Internet stock space
looking for anything that could capitalize on the plethora of buyers and
sellers moving to the Web.


Our number crunching shows ONSL led the ISDEX pack followed closely by yet
another high for (the YAH?) of Yahoo!, up 26% this year, 20% of that coming
since March 3.


We have a hard time believing in YHOO at anything above
10x sales despite the hoopla. Better hunting was found in Infoseek
(NASDAQ:SEEK), the little stock that could.


Long trading at a miserable discount to its peer groups–less than half,
despite having solid traffic on its site–SEEK finally partly caught up. We
think it’ll take more than that to get it to move any more, with rumors
published in many media that SEEK was a takeover candidate. Any one of the
Internet group is a takeover candidate. No news there.


Our sense tells us the big media companies still don’t get it and probably
won’t bite. Anything less than 10 years old to them is “new media,” and in a
world where they count run of press and newsprint prices with a closer eye
than the Web, good luck to them.


Take New Century Network for example, the group of leading newspaper chains
that attempted an Internet service announced yesterday it will close down
after four years of effort. This provides a classic example of old media
approaching the Internet like an extension of itself.


In the end, too many paperpushers, politics, and unwillingness of the
newspaper giants to leverage the Web as its own medium and not an extension
of print.


More reasons why new startups and those yet to be born have a chance–those
that come from the Net rather than at it still have the upper hand. Our
latest tally:



ISDEX March 3 – 10












































































































































































































































































































































































ISDEX ®

Ticker

10-Mar-98

% change

Point change

% change

Internet Stock Index

symbol

close

from

from

from

 

 

 

03-Mar-98

03-Mar-98

31-Dec-97

 

 

 

 

 

 

ISDEX Geometric Average

 

147.16

9.5%

12.80

47.4%

ISDEX Price Wtd. Composite

 

1,144.92

10.5%

108.77

42.6%

NASDAQ

 

1,748.51

-0.5%

-8.63

11.3%

DJIA

 

8,643.12

0.7%

58.29

9.3%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Onsale

ONSL

35.00

31%

$8.25

94%

Infoseek

SEEK

20.75

25%

$4.13

93%

Yahoo!

YHOO

87.50

20%

$14.56

26%

PSINet

PSIX

9.06

19%

$1.44

77%

Open Text

OTEXF

19.75

19%

$3.13

48%

CNET

CNWK

39.06

18%

$6.06

32%

USWeb

USWB

21.22

18%

$3.22

126%

Mindspring

MSPG

63.88

17%

$9.38

90%

Excite

XCIT

55.88

17%

$8.13

86%

Forefront

FFGI

12.13

17%

$1.75

55%

Network Solutions

NSOL

23.19

17%

$3.31

77%

CyberCash

CYCH

14.56

17%

$2.06

15%

Amazon.Com

AMZN

83.11

16%

$11.36

38%

Sportsline USA

SPLN

29.94

15%

$3.94

178%

RealNetworks

RNWK

18.13

15%

$2.38

31%

Concentric

CNCX

16.25

15%

$2.13

83%

@Home Network

ATHM

37.38

15%

$4.88

49%

CKS Group

CKSG

20.88

13%

$2.44

48%

CMG Info

CMGI

60.75

12%

$6.63

101%

Lycos

LCOS

45.31

12%

$4.81

10%

Earthlink Network

ELNK

54.50

8%

$4.00

112%

VocalTec

VOCLF

23.75

7%

$1.50

16%

America Online

AOL

123.00

5%

$5.88

36%

Security Dynamics

SDTI

35.13

4%

$1.50

-2%

Trusted Information Systems

TISX

20.75

3%

$0.63

108%

N2K

NTKI

25.31

0%

-$0.06

73%

Open Market

OMKT

18.03

-1%

-$0.09

87%

Spyglass

SPYG

8.31

-1%

-$0.09

68%

Netscape

NSCP

19.31

-1%

-$0.25

-21%

E*TRADE

EGRP

25.63

-2%

-$0.56

11%

Security First Net Bank

SFNB

10.63

-3%

-$0.38

47%

Versant Object Technologies

VSNT

7.13

-7%

-$0.50

-48%

Mecklermedia

MECK

24.75

-7%

-$1.88

-1%

CheckPoint Software

CHKPF

35.00

-12%

-$4.88

-14%

TOTAL

 

1,144.92

10%

108.77

43%

SIMPLE AVERAGE

 

33.67

10%

3.20

43%



  • 03.10.98: VocalTec (NASDAQ:VOCLF), the IP communications company, agrees to
    acquire RADLINX Ltd., which develops real-time online fax, email-to-fax and
    fax-to-email transmission over IP networks. Deal value: $7.5 million to $9
    million based on certain conditions. Another move as IP swallows legacy
    communications mediums.


  • 03.09.98: Security First Network Bank (NASDAQ:SFNB) reports Royal Bank of
    Canada (NYSE:RY) U.S. subsidiary agrees to acquire the banking operations
    of Atlanta-based SFNB for $20 million. In addition, RBC signs a technology
    license to use SFNB’s S1 Internet banking software and has options to
    acquire equity in SFNB.


    Meanwhile, fourth quarter ending December 31, 1997, SFNB posts $9.2 million
    net loss from continuing operations of $9.2 million, or $0.93 per share,
    compared to a net loss from continuing operations of $9.8 million, or $1.19
    per share, for 4Q96.


  • 03.05.98: Mecklermedia announces NetSearcher.com, a vertical search engine
    for Internet industry professionals which debuts today at Spring Internet
    World in Los Angeles, March 11, the West Coast’s largest Internet trade
    show and conference event.


  • 03.04.98: N2K (NASDAQ:NTKI) files a secondary public offer of 3.8 million
    shares, 2 million of which are from the company and the remainder from
    selling stockholders. It’s important now for these new firms to cash up and
    establish their brands so that the future revenue flow can occur. Right now
    branding is everything, creating a stickiness to a Web-based business.
    Without the brand nobody knows it’s there on the multi-million gigabit
    ocean of Web sites out there.


  • 03.04.98: CMG (NASDAQ:CMGI) CEO David Wetherell mentions on MSNBC that the
    Internet investment firm looks to sell a third of its 42% ownership in
    publicly-held Lycos (NASDAQ:LCOS). Price talk: $80 million. Have to take
    profits sometime.

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