In spite of "playing the percentages" somewhat unusually, this made me laugh for quite some time...at first I thought it had to be a spoof article, but it's not...
October 27, 2000
StockHouse News Desk
By Beth Price (bprice@stockhouse.com)
Mobile Internet: BIFS to Offer Wireless Broadband Paintball Pollution Control?
Miami, FL, October 27 /SHfn/ -- PR flaks at companies big and small dream about it. An article in a popular Wall Street Journal column, with their corporation's name proudly emblazoned above the fold of the Money & Investing section. It can make a product a best-seller, or a micro-cap company Wall Street's latest darling. It hasn't yet done either for BIFS Technologies [BIFS]. Like a StockHouse article a month earlier, the Journal raised some important questions on October 2, which executives have either failed to address or not answered satisfactorily. A recently announced alliance casts further doubt on the company's focus.
In the month following the StockHouse article, BIFS' share price fell by more than 50%. A significant rally on October 23 fueled shareholder's hopes, but in early-morning trading October 25, BIFS shares were back down trading in the $0.20s, nearly 40% below their price when StockHouse originally reported on the company. BIFS closed today at $0.26 a share.
For the year ending May 31, Internet commerce revenue reached $3,559--and no, that's not a typo.
Though it traces its roots to the wastewater treatment industry, BIFS offers Internet access through a product it calls SWOMI, or seamless, wireless, omni-directional, mobile Internet. The pollution control company, until recently known as BioFiltration Systems, entered the new economy with its acquisition of BeachAccess.net in April of this year. BIFS continues to pursue wastewater deals with airports nationwide, as well as Internet sales to hotels and condominiums in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The company's latest alliance may add yet another tune to the BIFS medley. On October 10, BIFS announced that it was exploring the potential of working with an outfit called eCom eCom.com [ECEC]. Though BIFS provided an erroneous ticker symbol in its press release, that's an easy mistake to make. The similarly named eCom.com Inc. [ECMM] and eCom Corp. [ECCM] trade over the counter alongside BIFS and eCom eCom. To keep them straight, just remember eCom eCom's vaguely suggestive web address: www.ecomecom.com.
Thankfully, moving to the seedier side of Internet commerce is not a direction the partnership is taking--though it could perhaps generate much-needed revenue. ECom eCom offers a "complete package of services to help businesses join and compete in today's New Economy." Like BIFS, though, eCom eCom has only recently entered the digital age.
How much money has eCom eCom made with its "e-commerce concepts and related properties"? A look at the company's annual report, filed with the SEC on September 13, shows the progress it's made so far. For the year ending May 31, Internet commerce revenue reached $3,559--and no, that's not a typo. Deals for an additional $150,000 cash received were logged as "unearned revenue," since eCom eCom has two contracts over the next two consecutive years to perform the work. Another division of eCom eCom, though, increased sales by 1152% in fiscal 2000, to $2,862,266. That group's focus? Paintball supplies.
Paintball. You know, that game of tag played by people armed with weapons that shoot pellets of paint. Perhaps angry shareholders brandishing eCom eCom's harmless yet messy Viper M1s will demand that BIFS' patent number be revealed once and for all. Or that the company finally stop claiming to be a Bulletin Board stock, when it was delisted some time ago. Though CEO Alpha Keyser thanked the Wall Street Journal "for pointing that out" (and several other news stories have mentioned it), a press release a week later still contained the error.
Investors may be better served by waiting until one company or the other has the numbers to prove it.
ECom eCom could turn out to be an e-commerce success. It's just too soon to tell. In its annual report, eCom eCom suggests that it will embrace the Internet "using the same e-commerce concepts that have made our paintball business grow so rapidly." The same document, though, makes it clear what has been responsible for that accomplishment. "The most significant factor in paintball sales growth has been the success of our advertising stemming from use of the 1-800-paintball toll-free telephone number acquired early in 1999." Does anyone hear 1-800-BIFSBALL?
Perhaps, too, through the alliance, the two companies will eventually develop "high-end consumer products that cater to the needs of businesses competing for a position in the electronic commerce market." While Keyser might believe that eCom eCom "possesses a solid business strategy that places access and practical solutions to the issues of e-commerce in the hands of small and medium sized businesses throughout the country," investors may be better served by waiting until one company or the other has the numbers to prove it.
Though BIFS' environmental division markets a product to treat airport run-off, maybe the company could look for additional synergies with eCom eCom… perhaps, say, developing a solution to clean up after a paint-ball massacre?
• • •
Australia Canada Hong Kong Japan Singapore UK Investment.com InvestorLinks.com
Home BullBoards News Releases Newsletters The Markets Portfolio Tracking
Disclaimer Privacy policy © Copyright 00 StockHouse Media Corporation
All Rights Reserved.
stockhouse.com |
