I'm just now reading the Annual Report. I did not know that Sky Walker Dayton is 29 years old and before he started Earthlink in 1994 he co-owned 2 coffee houses. To me, this is scarey. He founded Earthlink when he was about 23 years old. I have nothing against age. Look at Jobs, et al. at Apple but they had more substantive backgrounds. Nonetheless, I've begun to look at the balance sheets and under intangibles, good will was valued at 36M during 99 and 115M during 2000. That is some appreciation of assets.
Total revenues appreciated about 47% from 99 to 200, It would seem, revenues during 2001 would have to increase about 45% and expenses stray the same in order break even. I'm not an accountant but this is what it seems to me. If this is true, can one really expect Earthlink to achieve this during 2001 or at 15% during the next 3 years.
Earthlink has held up quite well during the current .com debacle. No one has been fired, etc. I'm very surprised. But, after preliminary reading, I'm more pessimistic whether this company can make it-losing money during 98, more during 99 and more during 2000. |
