I have been using Excite@Home’s cable modem service for a year and a half.
While it is not perfect, the speed performance is far superior to my old
dial-up account.
As more and more people use the Web, they will want speed, too. What’s
more, the leading-edge Net technologies — video, voice, etc. — requires
lots of firepower. Obviously, the future is broadband.
In this environment, it would seem that
Excite@Home (ATHM)
would be a perfect investment. It is a first-mover, which has locked-up
cable agreements that cover 72 million homes. Of course, there is the
Excite.com portal, the MatchLogic division (which provides advanced
marketing technologies) and @Work (Internet services for businesses).
Yet, the stock has been a dog. Yesterday, the stock closed at $34-3/16.
The 52-week low is $33.
Perhaps, a big problem is that the company is a hodge-podge of assets.
Thus, it can make it difficult for Wall Street to value. What’s more, the
legal ownership rules regarding the cable agreements are mind-boggling.
But looking at the company, there are many bright spots. In the last
quarter, the company made its first profit (true, it was small: $514,000).
Revenues were $128.8 million, which was up from $73.3 million in the
year-ago period. In all, the company has over 1 million subscribers. Keep
in mind that the No. 2 cable modem service, Road Runner, has 550,000
subscribers.
To help clarify the valuation of the company, Excite@Home plans to create a
tracking stock that separates the company into content and broadband.
Actually, yesterday Excite@Home announced a new joint venture with Dow
Jones to create work.com, which is a portal for businesses (focusing on the
lucrative, but hard-to-target small and medium sized business market). The
venture will combine the assets of @Work and dowjones.com. Sometime this
year, work.com is expected to go public.
Excite@Home is a complex company and it will probably take some time for it
to convince investors. But once the company is finished launching its
tracking stocks and spin-offs, the picture will become clearer — getting
the stock out of its rut.