Damn guys, I just missed #1.....
December 23, 1999 9:41am
THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Qualcomm top tech stock of 1999
By Larry Barrett ZDII
SPECIAL REPORT -- If 1998 was the year of the .coms then 1999 was the year of the COM(M)S, as in Qualcomm and Metricom. These two companies pulled Wall Street kicking and screaming into the wireless age, posting prodigious gains well in excess of 1,000 percent this year.
That's not to say pure Internet stocks didn't create their fair share of paper millionaires this year, too. Companies such as DoubleClick Inc. (Nasdaq: DCLK) and RealNetworks Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK) managed to crack the top five of Inter@ctive Week's @Net 400 Index, returning gains of 796 percent and 760 percent, respectively.
But the fact that Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM), which was the Index' top performing stock through Dec. 20, and Metricom Inc. (Nasdaq: MCOM) managed to supplant 1998 stars such as Amazon.com
Metricom, which makes a wireless Internet connection possible with its Ricochet product, finished the year with a staggering 1,865 percent jump, soaring from a low of $4 a share in January to more than $100 a share in December.
The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company got most of its gains in a wild three-week stretch in late June and early July when it rallied from $10 a share to $50 a share. It then pulled back a bit before reloading in November when it surged from $50 to $100.
By expanding into even more markets, Metricom has the look of a long-term giant especially if it can maintain its market share while expanding into foreign markets that are built on a wireless infrastructure.
Year-end Winners
QCOM 25.9 466.8 1724%
MCOM 5.18 79.12 1499%
DCLK 22.25 201.3 796%
RNWK 17.9 146.4 760%
OPEN 1.7 13.5 740%
CMGI 26.6 222.18 738%
IATV 3.8 30.93 735%
LTXX 2.56 20.12 707%
DISH 12.09 86 614%
ELCO 1.93 13.25 610%
SCOC 4.43 29.12 576% |
