Deals Lead Net Stocks Higher

Internet stocks continued rising in afternoon trading. Investors were back
to B2B following yesterday’s Fed announcement and another high-profile Net
acquisition on Wednesday.

internet.com’s Internet Stock Index rocketed 41.86, or 4.09 percent higher,
to 1,064.77, the Nasdaq Composite jumped 153.07 to 4864.75 and the Dow Jones
industrial average slipped 40.64 to 10866.70.

The business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce sector was back in action as VerticalNet (VERT)
added 5 to 202, PurchasePro.com (PPRO)
was up 2-1/64 to 122-1/64, and Ariba (ARBA)
climbed 20-5/16 to 261-1/16.

Metamor Worldwide Inc. (MMWW)
soared 17-21/64 to 33-21/64 after PSINet
Inc. (PSIX)
agreed to buy the Internet consultant for $1.9 billion in stock. Shares of
PSIX fell 7-15/16 to 41-9/16.

The purchase gives PSINet controlling interest in Metamor’s Xpedior Inc. (XPDR)
consulting unit. XPDR finished up 7-11/16 to 22.

FreeMarkets Inc. (FMKT)
was up 6-21/32 to 180-1/4. The B2B e-commerce play purchased Surplus Record
Inc. and SR Auction for $18 million.

Broadcom Corp. (BRCM)
rose 14-5/8 to 242-5/8, Exodus
Communications (EXDS)
gained 14-1/8 to 169-3/8, Infospace.com (INSP)
jumped 12-3/8 to 172, Doubleclick
Inc. (DCLK)
climbed 9-37/64 higher to 106-9/16 and eBay
Inc. (EBAY)
was flying again, up 18-1/8 to 232-5/8.

Liberate Technologies (LBRT)
gained 10-1/2 to 80-1/2. The set-top box maker reported a quarterly loss of
14 cents a share before one-time items, 4 cents better than expectations.

GoTo.com Inc. (GOTO)
dropped 2-11/16 to 41-1/8. The search engine sealed a linking deal with
Go2Net Inc. (GNET). Shares of GNET were up 2-3/8 to 87-7/16.

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