WSJ Digits: Return to Sender
16:46, 2001-05-03
Not long after he was laid off from Warner Bros. in January, Abbas Haider got a nice surprise in the mail: 750 shares of stock in the newly formed AOL Time Warner Inc. Although he held restricted shares of the former Time Warner, he hadn't expected to receive shares in the new company -- especially after being let go. But when he called the transfer agent, EquiServe, he was told the shares were valid. So he did what any 40-year-old unemployed computer systems analyst with three children and a wife recovering from a heart attack would do: He sold the shares. At about $47 each, he garnered about $35,000. After receiving the money, his broker called to say the stock certificates had been returned as invalid and that he would be served with a lawsuit if he didn't return the money. Mr. Haider gave up his gains. He wasn't the only one to get caught in this mix-up. During the past few months, EquiServe mistakenly mailed AOL Time Warner stock certificates to about 150 current and former employees, primarily in the Warner Bros. online division. AOL Time Warner, New York, says it put a stop transfer on those certificates once it became aware of the transfer agent's mistake. ""An error was made affecting a small group of employees and former employees and we're in the process of correcting it,"" AOL Time Warner spokesman Ed Adler says. EquiServe would only say it supports AOL Time Warner's statement. Some employees, however, already had sold their shares by the time the mistake was caught. And not all have returned the money. One former employee has retained a lawyer in a dispute with his brokerage agent. David Andrews, a computer technician who received shares in error after being laid off from Warner Bros., says it isn't fair for the employees to carry the burden of AOL's mistake. ""This whole merger with AOL got us laid off and now they're leaving us stuck like this."" Webvan's 'Candid Call' Ask not what your Internet grocer can do for you -- ask what you can do for your Internet grocer. There was a tinge of President Kennedy's famous inaugural address in an e-mail Webvan Group Inc. sent to its customers this week. In the letter, which acknowledged the uncertainty swirling around e-commerce companies in general and Webvan in particular, Chief Executive Robert Swan said the question he is asked most frequently by customers is ""What can I do to help ensure Webvan's survival?"" Webvan's answer: Buy more stuff, more frequently. The e-mail informs readers that the Foster City, Calif., company's most profitable customers place orders of $100 or more a week with the Internet grocer, and that buying pharmaceuticals, pet supplies and baby products from Webvan can help tip those orders into triple-digit territory. The company, which has seen its stock fall to 12 cents a share as it struggles to show it can turn a profit, also said it is going to introduce later this spring a loyalty program called Webvan Rewards that will let big customers win free deliveries and other bonuses. Bud Grebey, a Webvan spokesman, said the e-mail was a ""very candid call"" to customers. ""We're getting calls from people saying, 'You can't go out of business; we depend on you,' "" Mr. Grebey said. Cluck Club A female investment club called ""Chicks Laying Nest Eggs"" created quite a stir at the Yahoo! Inc. annual meeting last week. Clad in powder-blue pajamas decorated with pictures of chicks, dollar bills and nests, the 10 women asked questions during the Q&A and posed for pictures with Yahoo founder David Filo.
Karin Housley, the pixieish founder of the investment club, also took the opportunity to tout her book titled -- what else? -- ""Chicks Laying Nest Eggs: How 10 skirts beat the pants off Wall Street ... And how you can too!"" Ms. Housley explained that her investment club (composed of friends and her sister and mother) decided to meet for one of its two annual face-to-face meetings at the Yahoo gathering in Santa Clara, Calif. They wanted to get a bird's eye view of the once highflying company whose stock is down 81% from when the group bought in. Club members flew in from far-flung states such as Georgia and Minnesota. Although Yahoo is the worst-performing investment in the club's 12-stock portfolio (which holds such bellwethers as AOL Time Warner and Coca-Cola Co. and which is still ahead of the S&P 500,) the Chicks haven't lost their enthusiasm for the Internet-portal company, despite a generalized advertising slump. ""I was so impressed with what I saw,"" Ms. Housley said, ""we're thinking of buying more."" Out of Sync Reporters and advertisers that received an invitation to Excite At Home's event showcasing the model broadband home of the future may be scratching their heads.
The invitation for the New York event on May 15-17 comes from ""George Bell, chairman and CEO, and the Senior Leadership Team of Excite At Home."" Last week, the company named Patti Hart as its new chairman and CEO and said Mr. Bell would resign from the company and the board to spend more time with his family. Oops. Company spokeswoman Alison Bowman said the objective of the event would be the same: ""showcasing broadband and what people can do with broadband,"" or high-speed Internet connections. The reason for the snafu is that invitations for the event were printed a month ago. ""Four weeks in the Internet world is an eternity,"" she said. But still. --Julia Angwin, Nick Wingfield and Mylene Mangalindan
Copyright c 1999-2000 Dow Jones Inc. All rights reserved.
quamnet.com |
