Hey Bill, I must apologize. Ariba isn't a hot dog, its a taco!
Betcha you love James Cramer.
09/25/2001 07:42 AM EDT
URL: thestreet.com
As I write, I am stalled in traffic in front of Arriba! Arriba!, one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. And it reminds me how, once again, I suspect that after the nice showing tech put on Monday, tech's defenders will seize the initiative and get you to average down on Ariba and all the other hopeless Internet financial companies out there.
Periodically we will be fooled about how dead the Net is for anything but buying books and stocks (now that travel is out of the picture, short-term, because of terrorism). We will be fooled because the magazines and newspapers still have these hefty specials and promotions that they put on the books at the beginning of the year when people still hoped for an Internet comeback.
You know these specials. They come as supplements or fourth sections of your newspapers. They were done to try to capture some of the business that Industry Standard was stealing. (Remember them?)
People will craft new reasons Inktomi represents good value or Akamai is the future of fast Web work or how Portal Software is the Net billing company of the future or how Commerce One is taking huge share or how the Covisint deal one day will be red-hot. Or how Ask Jeeves , well, I don't even want to go into Jeeves.
Dream on, pals.
This stuff's not coming back. Use this week's rally to take your tax losses in these stocks before the mutual funds inflict them on you.
It's been the best advice you could possibly get. And it will remain so for a long time. Or, even though I hate the restaurant business, to put it in terms you'll understand, I would gladly prefer to own shares in Arriba! the restaurant to owning Ariba the company. And I don't even like their tacos.
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