Bookworms and infomaniacs jumped on Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Infoseek’s
(NASDAQ:SEEK) bandwagon driving up the shares in a stock market as absurd
as Geraldo Rivera and Jerry Springer wrestling Howard Stern on pay per
view. One minute stocks are up, the next they’re down.
Adding another element to the action, caffeine-inspired thumb-twitching
traders and fast-buck artists scream up stocks on message boards in pump
and dump fashion on a wing and prayer (there are no atheists in bull
markets). That explains part of Infoseek’s rise amid rumors that Disney
(NYSE:DIS) or Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) was kicking its tires and looking to
perhaps acquire a part of the search and portal company.
Read our lips: Every Web firm is a potential takeover target.
Meanwhile, Amazon crept up to become a $3.6 billion firm, more than $1
billion more than retailer-lithic Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS). Adding music
sales to the fluvial lineup cannot explain all of the pop. Of course
shortsellers are to blame for some of AMZN’s run but the upward trend gives
new meaning to the word “short seller”–that’s what they may have to sell
to buy those shares and cover their “positions.”
The numbers for ISDEX, June 9 – June 16:
Mecklermedia’s | 16-Jun-98 | % change | Point change | |
ISDEX ® | close | from | from | |
The Internet Stock Index | 09-Jun-98 | 09-Jun-98 | ||
where Wall Street meets the Web | ||||
ISDEX Geometric Avg. | 133.36 | -4.5% | -6.27 | |
ISDEX Price Wtd. | 1,431.63 | -1.0% | -14.25 | |
NASDAQ | 1,753.12 | -2.6% | -47.64 | |
DJIA | 8,665.29 | -4.3% | -384.63 | |
Amazon.Com | $73.63 | 44% | $22.38 | |
Infoseek | $33.13 | 22% | $5.88 | |
Intuit | $50.19 | 9% | $4.19 | |
Lycos | $56.75 | 6% | $3.19 | |
Egghead.com | $8.25 | 6% | $0.44 | |
Axent | $26.69 | 5% | $1.31 | |
Excite | $67.31 | 4% | $2.31 | |
Yahoo! | $121.94 | 3% | $4.06 | |
CMG Info | $45.63 | 2% | $1.00 | |
Sportsline USA | $30.13 | 2% | $0.50 | |
CNET | $45.50 | 1% | $0.38 | |
America Online | $89.00 | 0% | $0.38 | |
Netscape | $24.28 | 0% | $0.09 | |
CDnow | $17.19 | -1% | -$0.13 | |
Verisign | $27.13 | -1% | -$0.25 | |
CKS Group | $21.00 | -1% | -$0.25 | |
CyberCash | $14.06 | -1% | -$0.19 | |
Doubleclick | $36.44 | -2% | -$0.56 | |
RealNetworks | $25.94 | -2% | -$0.44 | |
Security Dynamics | $19.00 | -3% | -$0.50 | |
@Home Network | $37.00 | -3% | -$1.00 | |
CheckPoint Software | $27.75 | -3% | -$0.75 | |
Mecklermedia | $20.38 | -3% | -$0.63 | |
Security First Net Bank | $9.94 | -4% | -$0.44 | |
CheckFree | $23.94 | -4% | -$1.13 | |
Metricom | $9.25 | -5% | -$0.44 | |
WavePhore | $11.63 | -5% | -$0.56 | |
Mindspring | $59.75 | -6% | -$3.50 | |
IDT Corp | $25.63 | -6% | -$1.63 | |
Broadvision | $16.31 | -6% | -$1.06 | |
Network Associates | $40.88 | -7% | -$3.00 | |
Open Text | $15.63 | -7% | -$1.19 | |
USWeb | $19.25 | -7% | -$1.50 | |
PSINet | $10.38 | -7% | -$0.81 | |
Spyglass | $10.13 | -7% | -$0.81 | |
PairGain | $13.88 | -8% | -$1.19 | |
Earthlink Network | $58.00 | -9% | -$5.50 | |
Concentric | $23.63 | -9% | -$2.25 | |
Secure Computing | $8.63 | -9% | -$0.88 | |
E*TRADE | $20.91 | -11% | -$2.53 | |
Versant Object Technologies | $4.56 | -11% | -$0.56 | |
Open Market | $15.25 | -12% | -$2.00 | |
Broadband Technologies | $4.88 | -12% | -$0.69 | |
VocalTec | $10.88 | -13% | -$1.56 | |
Cylink | $9.00 | -15% | -$1.56 | |
Network Solutions | $37.00 | -15% | -$6.63 | |
Onsale | $22.13 | -16% | -$4.13 | |
N2K | $14.75 | -23% | -$4.38 | |
NewsEdge | $9.00 | -33% | -$4.38 | |
Cyberguard | $8.19 | -34% | -$4.13 | |
TOTAL | 1,431.63 | -1% | -17.00 | |
SIMPLE AVERAGE | 28.63 | -1% | -0.34 |
Lycos (NASDAQ:LCOS), Excite (NASDAQ:XCIT), and Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO), the
usual suspects, also posted small gains since June 9. Lycos cut $15 million
in commerce sponsorship deals for Lycos Europe, its joint venture with
media heavyweight (the Time Warner of Europe) Bertelsmann.
CMG Info (NASDAQ:CMGI) came back from a soft few weeks as one of its
investments, GeoCities, filed to go public. CMG owns a third of the
Webstead firm. We’ve always liked CMG for its stable of investments. The
weak link, if there is one with CMG, may be a lack of quarter-to-quarter
Internet-specific operating assets to drive its balance sheet. IPOs and
shares are good in a bull market but what about bear market?
On the fallen from grace side, Network Solutions (NASDAQ:NSOL) was blasted
by an article in Barrons that said NSOL could be a $18 stock soon. Those
who know a little more about the Internet than Barrons (which is just about
everybody) pushed NSOL back up June 16 to $37 per share. Yes, competition
is coming. But how many are cashed up to the level of NSOL and it has the
inertia factor of being the “default” .com registrar already. We think
Network Solutions still must find more revenue streams here, however, to
expand its margins.
Versant Object Technologies (NASDAQ:VSNT) posted weaker than expected
results for first quarter. CEO quote: “We are obviously disappointed with
this quarter’s results which we attribute in large part to our dependence
on large deals, which did not materialize in the quarter. We are working to
decrease our dependence on such deals in the future, and we seek to
continue to drive down operating expenses.”
WWWrestling fans, but for the lack of large deals goeth every Internet
firm.
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