SHARE

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

Written By

Feb 11, 1998

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.

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

The Contenders

Steve Harmon

Recommended for you...

Company

Categories