No Guts, No Glory: Internet Stocks Are Up 18.9% So Far This Year, Olympian?

Giant slalom at 70 MPH and triple spins on hard ice are moves de jour at
Nagano, where the world’s greatest athletes twist and turn for glory.


Of course, anyone familiar with the hot and cold nature of investor sentiment
when it comes to the lineup of Internet stocks knows that there’s equally a
run for the gold on Wall Street. So far ahead of the pack this year: ISDEX,
up 18.9% vs. the best Nasdaq Composite could do at 8.8%. The bronze medal
goes to
the Dow Industrials.


Here’s our latest tally:


The Contenders




















































































































































































































































































































































































ISDEX ®

Ticker

10-Feb-98

% change

Point change

% change

Internet Stock Index

symbol

close

from

from

from

 

 

 

03-Feb-98

03-Feb-98

31-Dec-97

 

 

 

 

 

 

ISDEX Geometric Average

 

118.78

5.3%

5.95

18.9%

ISDEX Price Wtd. Composite

 

929.22

3.0%

27.06

15.7%

NASDAQ

 

1,709.04

2.6%

42.70

8.8%

DJIA

 

8,295.61

1.7%

135.26

4.9%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open Market

OMKT

$ 13.88

36%

$3.69

44%

Concentric

CNCX

$ 14.00

29%

$3.19

58%

CyberCash

CYCH

$ 13.13

25%

$2.63

3%

Mindspring

MSPG

$ 48.25

25%

$9.50

43%

Earthlink Network

ELNK

$ 38.63

17%

$5.63

50%

N2K

NTKI

$ 24.63

17%

$3.50

68%

Netscape

NSCP

$ 21.00

15%

$2.81

-14%

PSINet

PSIX

$ 8.31

11%

$0.81

62%

America Online

AOL

$ 109.00

9%

$9.25

20%

Network Solutions

NSOL

$ 19.75

9%

$1.63

50%

E*TRADE

EGRP

$ 26.75

8%

$2.00

16%

CKS Group

CKSG

$ 18.38

8%

$1.31

30%

CMG Info

CMGI

$ 39.50

7%

$2.75

31%

@Home Network

ATHM

$ 26.13

7%

$1.75

4%

Security First Net Bank

SFNB

$ 10.25

6%

$0.63

41%

CheckPoint Software

CHKPF

$ 38.31

6%

$2.19

-6%

RealNetworks

RNWK

$ 15.88

6%

$0.88

14%

Trusted Information Systems

TISX

$ 10.50

6%

$0.56

5%

USWeb

USWB

$ 14.38

6%

$0.75

53%

Versant Object Technologies

VSNT

$ 8.38

3%

$0.25

-39%

Amazon.Com

AMZN

$ 63.63

3%

$1.81

6%

Mecklermedia

MECK

$ 27.00

2%

$0.63

9%

Infoseek

SEEK

$ 12.13

2%

$0.19

13%

Lycos

LCOS

$ 41.38

1%

$0.38

0%

Open Text

OTEXF

$ 12.00

0%

$0.00

-10%

Yahoo!

YHOO

$ 64.63

0%

-$0.22

-7%

Security Dynamics

SDTI

$ 34.63

-3%

-$0.94

-3%

Spyglass

SPYG

$ 5.53

-5%

-$0.28

12%

Onsale

ONSL

$ 25.63

-5%

-$1.31

42%

VocalTec

VOCLF

$ 18.88

-6%

-$1.13

-8%

CNET

CNWK

$ 29.63

-10%

-$3.25

0%

Forefront

FFGI

$ 9.81

-10%

-$1.13

26%

Excite

XCIT

$ 44.00

-11%

-$5.19

47%

Sportsline USA

SPLN

$ 21.38

-12%

-$3.00

99%

Raptor

RAPT

merged w/ AXNT

NA

NA

NA

TOTAL

 

929.22

4.8%

42.25

15.7%

SIMPLE AVERAGE

 

27.33

4.8%

1.24

15.7%



  • February 10: AOL (NYSE:AOL) reports net income of $20.8 million, or $0.17 per
    share on a diluted basis for its fiscal 1998 second quarter ended December 31,
    1997. Revenues jump 45% vs. the same quarter last year to a record $592
    million. These results compare to a net loss of $129.1 million or $1.37 per
    share on revenues of $409.4 million in last year’s corresponding quarter.


    Notably, ads, commerce, and “other” revenue is up 87% to $108.8 million.
    Access price increase to $21.95/month for unlimited use, up from $19.95, and
    the promotion of Bob Pittman to president and COO, moves AOL shares up to a
    record high February 9.


  • February 9: CMG Info (NASDAQ:CMGI) gets a $10 million investment from
    Japan’s
    Sumitomo to pursue Internet opportunities in Japan. CMG’s @venture division
    holds investments in many Internet firms including Lycos (NASDAQ:LCOS) and
    GeoCities. On a related note, Intel and Microsoft own just under 5% of CMGI
    shares each.


  • February 6: CyberCash (NASDAQ:CYCH) raises $15 million through placing
    convertible preferred stock and options to two private equity funds. The
    Internet commerce firm may raise another $15 million if certain conditions
    are satisfied. We would think those conditions may be a certain revenue
    level. So far the idea of digital payment systems have not been as large as
    many had expected when CyberCash began in 1994.


  • February 5: Netscape (NASDAQ:NSCP) rides the renewed vigor of takeover
    talk with
    an announcement that 3,000 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs),
    Internet Service Providers (ISPs), software developers, Web content
    providers, and others have committed to distribute more than 36 million
    copies of Netscape browsers. On takeout price we estimate NSCP could fetch
    $3 billion in whole, or its Web site NetCenter perhaps $400 million to $500
    million. The usual suspects for all or part of Mozilla: IBM, Sun, AOL.


  • February 4: Excite (NASDAQ:XCIT) completes the acquisition of Web ad
    concern MatchLogic, which through its five U.S. and European data centers
    served 2,500 sites and 500 million ad impressions December 1997. The deal
    announced January 15 was valued at 3.2 million shares of XCIT, then $89
    million. On February 4, the deal value hit $154 million. MatchLogic posted $4
    million sales last year.

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