*** Where are they now? ***
Ah, there must always be a reckoning. What became of our Roaring picks? Let's do this informally since I'm too lazy to really look all this stuff up. I think a loose description should give a sense of how well these guys are doing.
Portfolio began January 27, 1998.
This update: closing on March 3, 2000.
One at a time:
MRVC: After Mr. Pink and whatnot tanked the stock to $5 (concerns about "cooked books" or perhaps just bad quarters), MRVC has roared back to life. Originally bought at 22 13/16, close March 3, 2000, at $169 15/16. What in the heck happened this month???? Anyway that's a nearly 700% return, and that is pretty darn ok.
YURI: Some smart guy turned me on to this one and convinced me that it should go in the portfolio. Original buy at 21 and change and the company was bought out shortly thereafter at $35 or so if memory serves.
ACTC: original buy at 5 1/8 but was unceremoniously dumped from the portfolio for a theoretical loss. piece of junk at the time. However some weird stuff happened and a ticker change to ADSX and a subsidiary and an IPO of the subsidiary and fast growing revenues... no time to study this one but something to do with Free PC's maybe... anyway galdarn if it didn't just break out recently to 15 3/16 and still running. Located in Palm Beach though... hmm........
IVIAF bought at 7, merged with another company and is now CMIV - they aren't doing well and languishing at 3 or 4 - but they're in payment processing so "anything could happen".
CKFR Checkfree a leader in payment processing. Bought at 22 5/8 - expensive then but nonetheless it has turned out to be everything promised, closing March 3 2000 at 94 and change. Follow the trends! Predict the future! Get rich!
OTEXF now OTEX. Open Text a leading intranet & knowledge management co. Always liked this one. Bought at 11 7/8 and now trading in the 50's and gaining respect as B2B takes off.
SCTR was Specialty Teleconstructors - some kind of tower builder which was in an industry with a shortage. Bought at 14 and the stock got pumped too high too fast, recommended dumping at 35 or 40, watched it go higher... name change occurred at some point, think it crashed after that
XCIT Excite, was in the bad books when bought at 38 ish. The merger with @Home was a big story and though I can't be bothered to do the math, this was a big winner on the order of 500% or more.
FCSE - got hyped on this maker of tech for high definition TV - bought at 2 13/16 and guess what, they're still kicking around and seemingly doing well at 3 1/2 (crashing right now). Traded above 6 for past 2 months.
IFM on Toronto (or Montreal) - Was Mpact Immedia, is now BCE Emergis. Arguably the biggest winner here - bought at $3.65 Cdn and now at $155 Cdn so a bit more than a 40 bagger in 2 years.
GNET: Go2Net, which now owns this site. Having bought at $8 3/4 would have been good. That's a 40-bagger, split adjusted. I can't believe it!!!! How can one portfolio have so many picks like this???
HUMCF, now HUMC: Hummingbird. Many ups and downs, but long term, a winner. Bot at 30 3/4. Now at 54 and change and looks to be breaking out. On the way to 150?
INSO - again bad quarters, ups and downs, but we bought INSO for its XML products. Beware the future! Bought at 13 9/16. Was getting back on its feet big time, hitting 40 not a month ago, and completely collapsed again, now at 14. What a mess! How does that happen?
CPCI - got too caught up in bleeding edge superfast fiber channel disk array hardware here - let it be a lesson. Peter Lynch: never invest in disk drive companies. This principle is always right, never wrong. Bought at 12 1/8. Now at about the same level. Microcap company not widely followed anymore.
SFAM - chipmaker again bleeding edge. Tanked after buying at 24 but has now recovered - at 27 and should survive, Japan willing.
TLDCF - Israeli co which made midrange telecom equipment. Seemed like a good idea at the time but the company was pretty untrustworthy with info and disclosure. Bought 12 3/16. Escaped unscathed when co. bought out for 15 3/4.
AWRD - BIOS makers. Merged with rival Phoenix. Bought at 8, now around 27 - good growth and less competition... clear sailing.
WTT - Wireless Tel. No idea what the deal is on this, but it traded on Amex. We bought at 6 and change & dumped for a loss. Stock is now breaking out at 7.5 and looking like it's heading to the moon with solid earnings, but then again, I'm suspicious. Watch out for the dilution.
SWEBF - Softquad had web design products -HoTMeTaL pro etc. but the corporate structure was all weird. Bought for less than 1 and don't want to try to figure out what happened... probably worthless but maybe i'm wrong - anyway the nice part is the new company called Softquad Software just raised $700 mil in an IPO. So someone's getting theirs anyway.
NSCP - Was Netscape ever undervalued when we bought at 16 7/8. AOL bought it out where, somewhere around 60?
This was a totally imaginary portfolio.
I am therefore a totally imaginary multi-millionaire.
Glad we did this though - nothing like the test of time to test our investing theories! Several huge winners here! |
