CD Plus.com fifth most active conference
CD Plus.com Ltd. CDW
Shares issued 45,120,086 1999-12-10 close $0.6
Monday Dec 13 1999
Week ended Dec. 10th
by Stockwatch business reporter
CD Plus.com was reviewed in the last issue of Forum Watch, slipping to fifth position among Canada Stockwatch's most active conferences. On Dec. 6, The Globe and Mail commented on the postponed merger of CD Plus.com and CD Warehouse, noting that the merger would have resulted in the creation of one of North America's largest music retailers. The merged entity would have had 474 corporate-owned and franchise stores with annual sales of $243-million. On Dec. 7, CD Plus.com announced its entry into the music download market, offering several free music downloads.
In the CD Plus.com conference, MCCARTAN chided Cyberbroker, none too gently, after the company announced that merger talks with CD Warehouse had been postponed. Cyberbroker had claimed on more than one occasion that the merger had been completed. MCCARTAN wrote: "The so-called merger is off. Next time go by the volume and price shares. Also listen to other posters instead of slamming them. I hope no one bought on your info." Cyberbroker seemed unconcerned that his previous claims had been shown to be false. "Regardless of whether or not the merger went through, the stock is still a good one because 40 per cent of their business occurs in the holiday season and their quarterlies are coming up in late JAN and if sales are strong and healthy then you can still make money on this stock," he wrote. "This stock will go up so I am not panic selling and in fact I am going to continue to accumulate more shares because this stock is gonna move!!!" he added.
As the discussion continued, Cyberbroker suggested to MCCARTAN that they set aside earlier differences and engage in more constructive exchanges. He suggested that the stock price over the past four months was not indicative of the true value of the company, asking for MCCARTAN's opinion. MCCARTAN indicated that he had once felt that way but that things had changed. He suggested that things might change again "when we can see volume and price increase for a week or two (not an hour or two)." Finally acknowledging the failed merger, Cyberbroker wrote: "Well at least the merger is behind them. They have been concentrating so much effort in getting the thing done that they must have neglected other options and opportunities that may have popped up." Dr.Know returned to the discussion: "Look guys, CDW is still a brand new company. Yet it was already the target of a merger/takeover...So the price of the stock has not taken off yet, big deal. It will, it just takes time." Fire$tarter seemed to agree, but was not so positive. "Well I have heard the hype on CDW and I feel that it will take a while. Can't see many press releases in their future though."
The news release regarding the company's entry into the music downloading market seemed to give Cyberbroker a boost, but Isedabuy was not so impressed: "If you want to see how far behind CDW is in this technology, go to www.napster.com. If you download (quick) their software, you can download virtually any song you want, maintain a library of songs, and play them in any order. Seeing this you would have to agree that the sales of CDs will probably be dropping dramatically...Good luck, you will need it." Dr.Know countered: "It is still only a small fraction of the population that downloads music. For now anyway. That's why this company must capitalize on this and fast." Isedabuy was not convinced: "If today you can go and download virtually any song in the world and burn it onto a CD, why would you buy them. And in this scenario how is CDW planning to generate any revenue...I think the market is giving us a big, big wakeup call." CD Plus.com closed out the week at 60 cents on light trading. |
