Sy, a good catch!
Your attention to detail always amazes me. I just checked the fax from Mary Jo Moehle again (it is slightly blurry, and I did find 2 or 3 other minor typos), but it does read as follows (with NO "and," prior to the"an," in the passage you sited):
On October 1, 1999 Charter Communications Holding Company, Vulcan Ventures, an entity controlled by Mr. Allen, and InfoSpace, Inc. (successor by merger to Go2Net, Inc.) entered into a joint venture to form Digeo Broadband, Inc.
And also my sincere thanks to you, KLP, The O, and Carolyn for your kind comments. Lets all hope INSP has a good earnings report, which I believe will come out today sometime in the next hour or so. Jain knows how to play the earnings "expectations" game, as I believe he learned the art at the foot or the mighty master himself...good ole Billy G.
Sorry, but I'm rolling off my waste bucket again,
but the lips are feeling a lot better today...
although hundreds of shattered No.2 pencils
are scattered all over my keyboard. :)
Roger
PS. Not meaning to post anything negative on this thread <g>, however the following TheStreet.com article appeared in my ISP's stock news box this Monday morning (3/23/01), although it's date indicates that it was originally published last Friday (3/20/01):
thestreet.com
AS INSIDER WINDOWS OPEN,
BEWARE OF WHAT FALLS OUT
By Jay Somaney
Originally posted at 12:21 PM ET 4/20/01 on RealMoney.com
For the past few days, the good times have rolled on Wall Street again. As investors bid up stocks, afraid of being left behind, one thing was on insiders' minds: Sell. Many tech-company employees have watched in horror as their options sank -- right along with their dreams of beach houses, ski chalets or mortgage payoffs.
However, employees and beleaguered venture capitalists have been seeing some signs of hope. They're likely tripping over themselves to get in line to offload their holdings to once-again tech-hungry Wall Street.
Watch the Loading Dock
Almost 44% of the S&P 500 companies have already reported their first-quarter numbers, so the offloading window is now open. You can almost see the trucks at the dock, preparing to load up with stock and dump it on an unsuspecting investor.
An example is InfoSpace (INSP:Nasdaq - news), a former highflier that has seen its stock dive to a low of $1.56 from a 52-week high of almost $76. From Dec. 1, 2000, to March 30, 2001, company insiders (including members of management who were let go in restructurings) and venture capitalists sold more than 17 million shares, while the price slid from a little below $15 to slightly more than $2. When InfoSpace insiders are selling their holdings at what can be considered chump change, why should we be out there buying? Now if you speak to investor relations, you'll get the same old party line about diversification of assets. In fairness, the founder of InfoSpace did buy 500,000 shares on the open market about a month ago.
Another classic example is Ciena (CIEN:Nasdaq - news), which has almost doubled in the past two weeks from a low just below $35 to a high of a more than $70 Friday morning. From Dec. 1, 2000, to March 30, 2001, insiders sold almost a million shares while the stock continued to slide.
Tidy Profit to Be Made
Hundreds of insiders and venture capitalists at various companies continued to sell their stock while the markets and the stocks got decimated. When your exercise price is in the pennies and the stock has moved up from a few dollars to $4 or $5, you'll still reap a massive gain. Insiders aren't concerned that their stock once traded at $100. They're thinking that even at these levels, they have massive gains. Why not take some off the table to pay for those purchases they made last year?
I'm not trying to harp on the bad news. I'm merely trying to point out that we'll likely see some near-term selling pressure as the insider-trading windows begin to open.
I'm sensing a change in investor sentiment, but I'm leery of sending the bear in me into hibernation right now. We continue to scale out of some of our longs that have had massive moves in the last couple of weeks, and we're selectively adding to our short positions. Heart says go, but gut and logic say no. |
