| |
DJ Internet Capital Up 14%; Pros Cite GM/Commerce One Deal
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Shares of Internet Capital Group Inc. (ICGE), a holding
company for a range of business-to-business electronic-commerce ventures, rocketed to
an all-time high Wednesday on word that a peer company will help General Motors Corp.
(GM) set up an Internet supply depot.
Internet Capital stock, after earlier touching 149 1/4 and blowing by the previous high of
129 7/8 set Sept. 21, traded recently at 145 1/2, up 20 7/16, or 16.3%. Midday volume
reached 1.1 million shares, compared with average daily turnover 1.6 million.
Late Tuesday, GM, the world's largest auto maker, said it will put online its enormous
purchasing operation - a business that will immediately surpass in size Internet
merchants eBay Inc. (EBAY) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) - using technology from
Commerce One Inc. (CMRC). As part of the deal, GM will get warrants to receive as
many as 4.8 million Commerce One shares, valued at about $993 million as of Tuesday,
as the site achieves revenue targets.
Commerce One, Walnut Creek, Calif., provides software and services to help
companies sell their wares over the Web. Its stock on Wednesday surged a whopping
40, or 19.3%, to 247 1/8 on volume of 948,200.
Commerce One's deal, along with its subsequent stock rise, were enough to galvanize
investor interest in Internet Capital Group on Wednesday, traders and analysts said.
"It's nothing that the company has announced," Internet Capital Chief Financial Officer
David Gathman said of Wednesday's surging price. The company's latest announcement
came Oct. 27, when it bought for $50 million a stake in an eMerge Interactive Inc., an
electronic-commerce company - and an imminent IPO - focused on the cattle industry.
--Bill |
|
