Relax Billy,
This should cheer you up.
>The recent study by Forrester Research shows e-commerce swelling by 98 percent annually over the next five years, to 175 billion euros in 2005 up from 2.9 billion euros in 1999.
This too.
>BOMBAY, April 10 (Reuters) - The Credit Rating Information Services of India (CRISIL) said on Monday the valuation of $2 trillion given by the U.S. capital markets to the Internet sector was questionable.
"CRISIL's analysis of over 100 Internet companies confirms that most Internet stocks appear to be overvalued," it said in a statement. CRISIL, India's leading rating agency, cited the examples of the popular consumer service Yahoo Inc.<YHOO.O> and the world's leading Internet retailer Amazon.com Inc.<AMZN.O> which will have to grow at respective rates of 177 percent and 90 percent annually to sustain their present market capitalisation levels.
Last week, analysts raised Yahoo's 2000 earnings estimates to 44 cents per share from the earlier 38 cents after the company posted earnings of 10 cents a diluted share in the first quarter, beating analysts' estimates by a penny a share.
Yahoo's shares ended on Friday at $151 1/402, compared with the previous close of 154.
Analysts have forecast a loss of 85 cents per share in 2000 for Amazon.com whose shares ended on Friday at $67 1/409 compared with the previous 64 1/404.
The discounted cash flow method could be used for valuing internet businesses with some alterations in the method for taking into account the technology changes and market evolution, CRISIL said.
The rating agency said Internet companies can also be valued on the basis of supportable capital costs particularly in instances of mergers and acquisitions.
Crisil said the capital expenditure needs to be derived on the basis of what maximum level can be supported in the context of projected revenue streams.
For determining short to medium term revenues for an Internet Service Provider (ISP), the agency said the main driver will be the subscription fees charged for Internet access.
But the long term revenue projections should also factor in the advertising and e-commerce potential of such entities, it said.
Amongst portals CRISIL said only those horizontal portals with first mover advantage, branding strength, breadth of coverage, novel and localised content and linkages with vortals will suceed.
Vertical portals or vortals will be not be able to develop sustainable business models but would be viable in association with larger portals, CRISIL said.
In the short term, revenues of portals will be driven by advertising revenues but in the longer term the drivers will be commerce transaction fees, it said.
09:45 04-10-00 |
