Net Stocks Sag Despite Late Day Turnaround

After starting the day off down because of interest rate fears and profit takers, the market climbed out of the red late in the day to end on a positive note. Net stocks weren’t so lucky, though, hovering just below positive territory.

internet.com’s Internet Stock Index fell 19.81, or 2.15 percent, to 901.91, the Nasdaq Composite sunk 31.07 to 4380.67 and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 85.32 to 10304.84.

SBC Communications, Inc. (SBC) reached a new low, dropping 2 1/4 to 36, despite the company’s news Tuesday that it bought software firm Sterling Commerce Inc. (SE) for $3.9 billion in order to tap into the growing B2B sector. Sterling Commerce was up 12 to 43 9/16 on the news.

Global Crossing Ltd. (GBLX) slipped 3 3/4 to 48 5/8 on
news that it purchased network services firm IXnet for $3.8 billion. With
the acquisition, Global Crossing said it will move into the
desktop-to-desktop multinational corporation market.

Excite@Home (ATHM) gained 1/8 to 34 3/16. The company has plans to spin off its Work.com business portal into a separate company, which
it will jointly own with Dow Jones & Co. (DJ). Dow Jones was up 5/8 to 62 9/16.

America Online Inc.’s (AOL) shares continued to fall, down 1 3/4 to 49 1/2. The company announced a strategic agreement with
HomeGrocer.com, Inc. to promote HomeGrocer’s grocery services on AOL brands. Competitor Peapod, Inc. (PPOD) fell 9/16 to 9 1/8 on the news.

On a positive note, Earthlink Networks Inc. (ELNK) climbed 1 15/16 to 21 3/4 thanks in part to an investment by Sprint, Ariba, Inc. (ARBA) gained 5 1/4 to 234 1/4, Broadvision (BVSN) rose 5 5/8 to 185 1/8 and Inktomi (INKT) ended the day up 8 13/16 to 131 3/8.

Other industry leaders include Yahoo! Corp. (YHOO), which fell 2 5/16 to
153 13/16, eBay, Inc. (EBAY), down 2 3/4 to 134 1/2, E*Trade (EGRP) which fell 1/2 to 20, Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), which slid 1 3/16 to
63 9/16, Schwab (SCH), which dropped 11/16 to 37 9/16, Ameritrade, Inc. (AMTD), which closed even at 15 1/8, CMGI, Inc. (CMGI), down 3 5/8
to 104 3/4 and Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO), which fell 1 7/8 to 123 15/16.

Subscribe to Internet StockTracker, a weekly e-mail newsletter from
internet.com Corp. Every Friday internet.com will deliver to your e-mail in-box the latest performance data on individual Internet companies and their competitors. Internet StockTracker will deliver to you all the
statistics you need to assess the week’s activity. Sign up at: e-newsletters.