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Net stocks fall on security concerns
Network Associates, Enhanced TV stocks buck trend
By Bambi Francisco, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 6:37 PM ET Feb 11, 2000 Internet Daily
Net Headlines
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Security concerns weighed on Internet stocks for a third day Friday, keeping sentiment for the cyber group indifferent at best and bearish at worst.
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Updated:
02/11/2000 6:54:38 PM ET
The 17-stock Goldman Sachs Internet Index fell 4 percent to 668.21 Friday. But the index managed to eke out a 1 percent gain for the week. The Amex Internet Index lost 2.5 percent to 595.60. The Net barometer added 3 percent on the week.
America Online (AOL: news, msgs) lost 1 5/8, or 3 percent, to 56 5/8; Yahoo (YHOO: news, msgs) gave up 6 percent to 342 5/8; EBay (EBAY: news, msgs) declined 9, or 6 percent, to 153 3/8. But Amazon.com (AMZN: news, msgs) ended the session unchanged.
Net security stocks
Network Associates (NETA: news, msgs) saw its shares run up 3 9/16, or 13 percent, to 31 1/2. "We were a day late in the party," said company spokesperson Cabe Franklin, referring to Wednesday's surge in Net security stocks, with the exception of Network Associates. "A lot of companies were up on hype, but we have a product that helps resolve this problem."
Network Associates released an upgraded version of its VirusScan product on Wednesday, which resulted in a 400 percent jump in daily traffic to its Web site.
But it's unclear how effective the software is, and what the financial impact on Network Associates will be. The company said it's offering the upgraded software for free.
Analysts and Internet experts have said that the current crop of companies do not protect sites from vandalism. The heightened concern about Net security, however, has helped to send shares of companies that offer protection against a myriad of intrusive events, solidly higher since Tuesday. See full story.
"Denial of service has to do with bringing the router down and not intruding on the internal networks at Yahoo and Amazon," said Paul Saunders, an analyst at SoundView Technology Group.
RealNames (NAME: news, msgs), an Internet company set to go public in the near future, said it's fallen "victim" to the latest activities of "hackers," and that customer credit card information may have been stolen. See full story.
Enhanced TV
Shares of companies that are marrying the Net with the TV set sprang anew Friday.
Larry Marcus, an Internet analyst at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, hosted the investment firm's two-day Enhanced TV and Broadband conference in San Francisco. The event gave public and private firms the forum to educate money managers on the emerging trend.
OpenTV (OPTV: news, msgs), a middleware software company, saw shares soar 21 percent after announcing that its software has been deployed in more than 6 million digital set-top boxes.
Wink Communications (WINK: news, msgs) shot up 5 1/16, or 8 percent, to 70. Wink expects to have 8 million households committed to deploy Wink's software by the end of two years.
Liberty Digital (LDIG: news, msgs) saw shares gain 5 9/16, or 11 percent, to 58. Liberty Digital is an up-and-coming Net incubator for enhanced TV stocks. Liberty owns a stake in OpenTV.
Liberate Technologies (LBRT: news, msgs) shares rose 7/8 to 100 7/8. Liberate competes with OpenTV in middleware software.
Digital Island (ISLD: news, msgs) rose 5 1/4, or 5 percent, to 114 1/4 as its shares continue to rebound from depressed levels. Additionally, as content-on-demand via PCs or other Internet devices grow, so should the need for content distribution technology.
Digital Island, known as a content distribution company, enables content to be distributed at the edge of the network. It's a technology that broadband experts believe is critical in delivering content-on-demand via multiple Internet devices.
RealNetworks (RNWK: news, msgs) fell 9 3/8, or 5 percent, to 177 1/2, after trading at an all-time intraday high of 192. RealNetworks is at the forefront of the convergence of the TV and the Internet.
E-movers
Ariba (ARBA: news, msgs) rose 16 15/16, or 9 percent, to 212. The software procurement and business-to-business exchange is set to have its supplier gathering soon. Recall, last fall prior to its buyer-supplier event, Ariba shares ran up on anticipation of company announcements.
PurchasePro (PPRO: news, msgs) bolted 20 15/16, or 25 percent, to 104.
Chemdex (CMDX: news, msgs) gained 19 5/8 to 125 ahead of its quarterly performance report set for Monday. Emerge (EMRG: news, msgs), the B2B cattle industry marketplace, saw its shares run up 5, or 11 percent, to 49 1/2.
Network Solutions (NSOL: news, msgs) added 9 3/4, or 3 percent, to 302 after announcing solid sales growth in its fourth-quarter.
Digital Insight (DGIN: news, msgs) inflated by 9 percent to 80 after Chase H&Q started coverage with a "buy" rating.
WebMethods (WEBM: news, msgs) rocketed nearly 508 percent from its offering price Friday in a blistering debut that made it the No. 4 first-day performer of all time. WebMethods knocked out FreeMarkets' (FMKT: news, msgs) Dec. 10 pop of 483 percent to move in one notch below No. 3 Foundry Networks (FDRY: news, msgs), which vaulted 525 percent on its opening day last September. See IPO Report. |
