Anybody here (g&j maybe?) have any thoughts on ESPD (eSpeed)? It beat analysts' estimates today (loss of .10/share instead of the estimated .20), seems in pretty decent shape overall with a good B2B product/service, and there've been several recent buy rec's with targets of 80-100 (mostly before the crash, of course). But it still fell about 3-1/2 today (to 35-13/64).
The year-to-year comparisons aren't much use, because last year's first-quarter was only "partial." But it generally seems like a decent company, and I'd kinda expect the price to pick up at some point. But then, my crystal-ball's been a little cloudy lately...:-)
This was today's PR (I posted it earlier too, but here it is again for quick reference)...
===================
Tuesday April 25, 7:28 am Eastern Time
eSpeed Revenue Shows Dramatic Growth -- eSpeed, Inc. Reports First Quarter Revenue of $24.25 Million Vs. First Quarter 1999 Revenue of $1.95 Million; Revenue from Fully Electronic Transactions Continues Strong Rise
NEW YORK, April 25 /PRNewswire/ -- eSpeed, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESPD - news), a leading provider of real-time business-to-business electronic marketplaces, today announced revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2000 totaling $24,250,000, vs. first quarter 1999 revenue of $1,948,000 (eSpeed commenced operations on March 10, 1999). The Company reported a net loss of $4,926,000, or $(0.10) per diluted share, for the first quarter 2000. For the first quarter of 1999, eSpeed reported a net loss of $525,000 for the 16 business days constituting the company's Q1 1999 operation.
Fully electronic transaction revenues this quarter totaled $14.5 million, a $14.4 million increase over the first quarter of 1999. Transaction revenues overall for the first quarter of 2000 were 17 times greater than transaction revenues for the first quarter of 1999.
Commenting on eSpeed's performance, Howard W. Lutnick, Chairman and CEO said, ``The volatility in the equity markets, coupled with the increasing volatility in the global interest rate market, created strong volume and increased usage of the eSpeed system. As a result, our first quarter revenue growth was stronger than anticipated.''
Lutnick added, ``eSpeed offers the leading trading technology in the industry. In any vertical market, either financial or non-financial, eSpeed provides the end to end, B2B solution. With $150 billion in transactions each day, and $45 trillion annually, eSpeed is the proven system for fast, cost efficient marketplaces. Our products are rolling out as planned and the eSpeed system is being enthusiastically received.''
Frederick T. Varacchi, eSpeed's President and COO said, ``An increasing number of eSpeed clients and the continued volatilty of the equity and interest rate markets led to strong first quarter revenue growth. Our expenses this quarter increased due to our increased investment in our technology, our national advertising campaign and our commitment to recruiting and hiring the most talented personnel available.''
``Since the eSpeed system is readily extendible to any vertical, the migration of eSpeed technology to other markets is a natural transition. We have dedicated ourselves to delivering new products and real-time transaction solutions for a range of new markets. The eSpeed system employs our international high speed private electronic network and proprietary transaction processing software through which trades are executed in 300 milliseconds, globally. Our private network and high powered matching engines are also fully integrated with the Internet. Simply stated, if a product trades, it can trade on eSpeed.''
``Expanding our technology platform and business model into new markets is exciting,'' concluded Mr. Lutnick. ``We expect our growth to be enhanced by building alliances or joint-ventures with partners who recognize our technology platform as a key component to creating efficient B2B marketplaces. The opportunities in the world of B2B marketplaces are vast and we are actively pursing both financial and non-financial marketplaces.''
About eSpeed, Inc.
eSpeed, Inc. operates multiple buyer/multiple seller real-time B2B electronic marketplaces. eSpeed's suite of marketplace tools provides an end- to-end solution -- transaction processing, network distribution, risk management, back-end processing and billing -- for the trading of products via the Internet or over eSpeed's global private network. eSpeed currently provides the marketplace infrastructure for most of the world's fixed income financial markets, transacting over $150 billion of financial instruments daily. The eSpeed system is one of the most robust, large scale, instantaneous, mission critical trading systems in the world. eSpeed is headquartered in New York. Additional information on eSpeed is available via the Internet at espeed.com . |
