Excerpts from CBS Marketwatch re: CNET & VRIO & AOL
CNET (CNET) Chief Executive Halsey Minor said the Internet-based
media company plans to launch an online auction site in the second
quarter. CNET announced Monday that it is buying AuctionGate for
$6.5 million in stock. In addition, Minor said he thinks CNET will be a "very high margin business"; revenue grew 86 percent last year and
expenses only increased 15 percent. Minor also said investments in the company's Snap unit will be "very good for CNET." CNET's marketing
efforts, he said, will be "much more aggressive this year."
America Online (AOL) Studios President Ted Leonsis said the
company's strategy is to create multiple brands to attack different
segments of the market. He compared AOL to companies in the
beverage industry, where, say, Coca-Cola sells not only Coke but
Sprite, Diet Coke and other products. Leonsis, who got a laugh by
inadvertently calling Alan Greenspan "Alan Greenberg," said AOL's
ICQ chat service is adding 85,000 to 90,000 users a day. Both the ICQ service and AOL had 1 million simultaneous users Sunday night,
he said. Leonsis also told conference attendees that AOL's Digital Cities service reached profitability in January. He called broadband "the bogeyman" for AOL but said the company has multiple plans in the
works. AOL, he said, is adding a million users every 40 days and called the last 41 days "very, very strong."
Verio Inc. (VRIO) could grab the attention of fund managers. The
Colorado company provides Internet access for small and mid-sized
companies and says it hosts 200,000 active Web sites. Verio, which has
been buying Web-hosting companies across the United States, calls itself the largest domain-based Internet service provider.
Verio's customers include General Electric (GE), Princeton University,
and Ziff-Davis (ZD). Brooks Fiber Properties, a unit of MCI WorldCom
(WCOM), owns about 17 percent of Verio, according to Hoover's corporate profiles.
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