Michael Dell has made money the old fashioned way — by building a highly
profitable company that sells actual products.
Lately, though, he’s been moonlighting as a Net venture capitalist. His
firm is called MSD Capital LP (yes, that stands for Michael S. Dell). He
kicked-in a cool $1 billion to launch it last year, according to The
Wall Street Journal.
What does he like? Basically, it is business-to-business and
infrastructure. Investments include such names as Top Layer (develops
network switch technology), Internet Capital
Group (ICGE)
(the B2B incubator) and Cerent (more on this below). Dell also likes
companies that sell directly to consumers, such as
CarsDirect.com.
ISDEX in the Past Week
Net stocks have been steadily erasing the big losses sustained in the past
few months. The ISDEX, in the past week, rose 7.36% — with the biggest
gainers from the Net leaders, such as
Amazon.com (AMZN)
, DoubleClick (DCLK)
, and Ariba (ARBA)
.
Here’s a look:
SDTI
| ISDEX (r) | 26-Aug-99 | % change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Internet Stock Index | close | from | |
| www.isdex.com | 20-Aug-99 | ||
| close | |||
| ISDEX | 508.77 | 7.36% | |
| NASDAQ | 2774.62 | 4.78% | |
| DJIA | 11198.45 | 1.01% | |
| Amazon.com | AMZN | 128.56 | 13.33% |
| American Online | AOL | 100.44 | 5.52% |
| Ariba | ARBA | 134.5 | 20.76% |
| At Home | ATHM | 40.75 | 8.12% |
| Axent Technologies | AXNT | 13.38 | 1.90% |
| Broadcom Corp | BRCM | 133.5 | 8.64% |
| Broadvision | BVSN | 102.88 | 7.45% |
| Beyond.com Corp | BYND | 16.84 | 9.07% |
| CDNow Inc. | CDNW | 14.88 | -4.00% |
| Checkpoint Software | CHKP | 76.75 | 9.74% |
| CMGI Inc | CMGI | 87.31 | 9.22% |
| Concentric Networks | CNCX | 22.13 | -3.28% |
| CNET Inc. | CNET | 40.38 | 8.40% |
| Cisco | CSCO | 68.94 | 7.50% |
| Cybercash | CYCH | 9.13 | 0.44% |
| Doubleclick | DCLK | 105.94 | 16.49% |
| eBay | EBAY | 128.44 | 4.42% |
| E*TRADE GROUP | EGRP | 27.75 | 4.48% |
| Earthlink Networks | ELNK | 48.31 | 5.87% |
| Exodus Communications | EXDS | 86.25 | 14.42% |
| Go2Net Inc. | GNET | 67.38 | -0.46% |
| Healtheon | HLTH | 37.38 | 6.62% |
| Inktomi Corp | INKT | 115.06 | 1.37% |
| Infospace.com | INSP | 44.69 | 2.59% |
| ISS Group | ISSX | 25 | 3.09% |
| iVilliage Group | IVIL | 42.88 | 3.33% |
| Juniper | JNPR | 215.31 | 5.22% |
| Lycos Inc. | LCOS | 43.44 | -1.56% |
| Mindspring | MSPG | 31.56 | 4.99% |
| Network Associates | NETA | 15.94 | -2.27% |
| Network Solutions | NSOL | 65.44 | 7.28% |
| Open Market Inc. | OMKT | 12.25 | 0.49% |
| Onsale Inc. | ONSL | 15.31 | -6.87% |
| Priceline.com | PCLN | 72.63 | 7.20% |
| Prodigy Comm Inc. | PRGY | 21.5 | 7.50% |
| PSINet | PSIX | 51.38 | 12.77% |
| Preview Travel | PTVL | 17 | 1.13% |
| RealNetworks | RNWK | 85.5 | 5.71% |
| Secure Dynamics | 19.38 | -3.10% | |
| Infoseek Corp. | SEEK | 32 | 1.78% |
| Security First | SONE | 40.25 | 13.38% |
| Sportsline USA | SPLN | 27.63 | 34.39% |
| StarMedia | STRM | 42.88 | -7.55% |
| 24/7 Media Inc. | TFSM | 36 | 18.27% |
| TicketMaster-City Search | TMCS | 28.13 | -1.30% |
| USWeb Corp | USWB | 21.63 | 3.00% |
| Verio Inc. | VRIO | 38.5 | -45.68% |
| Verisign Inc. | VRSN | 110.5 | 27.10% |
| Xoom.com Inc. | XMCM | 38.5 | -13.25% |
| Yahoo Inc. | YHOO | 152.69 | 5.30% |
- 99.08.26 – Xoom.com (XMCM)
purchased Private One, Inc. The company is a developer of Web-based
secure email – which will be used in Xoom.com’s e-commerce initiatives.
More and more, the Web is becoming more personal – such as with the rise of
healthcare portals. However, sending information via email is, for the most
part, not secure. Xoom.com’s acquisition should give the company an edge
and spur other portals to offer such services. Secure email would also be a
killer-app for B2B, as well (you definitely don’t want your competitors to
snoop your communications).
- 99.08.26 – If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em. Cisco Systems (CSCO)
has built an empire with brilliant M&A deals. Yesterday, the company
spent $7.4 billion (in stock) to buy leadership in the optical fiber
market. The two companies purchased: Cerent, which develops equipment that
delivers voice, data and video over fiber-optic lines and Monterey, which
enhances the speed of fiber-optic networks. In fact, Cerent recently filed
an IPO. Moreover, the Cisco purchases should be good news for
JDS Uniphase (JDSU)
, as there will be strong demand for fiber-optic components.
- 99.08.25 – Mortgage.com (MDCM)
soared 7-3/16 to 15-3/8 on Wednesday. The company had its IPO several
weeks ago, although it was tepid. Priced at $8, the stock fell to $7.16 on
its first day. But with interest rates stable, prospects look much stronger
for Mortgage.com. Also, the company reported its quarterly results, with a
loss of $8.6 million on $14.3 million in revenues. During this time, the
company originated and closed 4,459 loans for a total of $848.2 million,
compared to 2,673 loans on $478.6 million in the same period last year.
Further, this week E-Loan (EELN)
purchased CarFinance.com from Bank of America. Inevitably, there is
talk that Mortgage.com will sign a similar deal soon. Stay tuned….
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