IMO, this company is becoming an even sadder joke...
Most likely no one on this board really gives a damn anymore, but the reasons this stock trades at about $1.25/share appear to be getting clearer and clearer every day. Just imagine what will happen to this stock's price if Judge Thomas Zilly, of the U.S. Western District, finally rules that there is enough evidence against INSP, Naveen Jain, Henry Blodget, Merrill Lynch et al...for the big class action lawsuit against INSP to proceed? Well, I guess there just isn't that much farther it can fall.
Remember how Jain has always boasted about how INSP has partnership agreements with over 80% of the wireless carriers in the U.S.? Two of the biggest of those are Verizon and AT&T Wireless. And remember, the truth is that 80% of INSP's total (gross) revenues (before the losses are added in) currently come from NON-Wireless sources (Wireline and Merchant). Not only that, but I'm not sure many people realize that over 90% of INSP's revenues from 2001 still came exclusively from U.S. sources (can found near the end of their recent 10-K), despite their seemingly endless press releases in the past about all the hot deals they were signing with companies outside the U.S. And not only that, but it now appears that if a wireless subscriber signs up as a "user" of INSP's services, they apparently only have to use the service ONCE in an entire quarter, to be listed as an "active wireless data user" by INSP. Just amazing!
In the most recent CC, INSP indicated that income from Verizon would NOT be included in there next years earnings projections of $126 million. I suppose if any of us really cared, Levy, KLP, or I would have stumbled upon the article below from last November. It seems to give a big clue about the true nature of INSP's much-flaunted "partnerships," especially in regards to Verizon...their largest wireless client.
VERIZON ("partner" of INSP):
Verizon Launches Text Messaging Service
But some warn vtext service could spell doom for wireless content relationship with InfoSpace.
By Tech Live staff
November 16, 2001
techtv.com
(just two excerpts)
However, the new vtext service duplicates some of the functionality offered by My VZW, Verizon's mobile portal telecommunications service, which is powered by InfoSpace.
Some industry watchers have suggested the launch of vtext suggests Verizon could be moving away from InfoSpace as a wireless content partner. However, Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said the company never intended to have an exclusive partnership with InfoSpace. The new vtext site, he said, offers Verizon customers a different content experience.
*******************
And then there's...
AT&T Wireless ("partner" of INSP):
We've all been reading about the new AT&T Wireless (AWE) launch of their new "mMode" wireless services, as part of their "mLife" program (which is really just the marketing name for their new wireless publicity campaign). You all may remember that INSP boasted in a big press release way back on November 15, 1999 that "AT&T to Offer Wireless Services Built on InfoSpace.com's Wireless Portal Platform"? That was AWE's previous "PocketNet" service. It turned out to be a big bust! Out of AWE's approx. 18 million wireless subscribers, only 1 million (1/18) signed up for PocketNet. It apparently took forever just to get a local weather report to come up on your tiny little cellphone screen. Me..I just stick my head out the window and say, "Yep, it's still raining."
And now we get another big press release from INSP this week proudly proclaiming:
siliconinvestor.com
InfoSpace Powers Mobile Shopping on mMode
And yet, it is my understanding, that you can select many website options in mMode, and in fact don't have to use any single site or portal at all.
Not only that, but what really amused me in the above press release was the following statement:
The new services enable mMode subscribers to check prices and availability for millions of products offered by over 50 merchants and to make purchases...
"Offered by over 50 merchants!" I thought that MUST be a huge typo in the press release, thinking they must mean 500,000 or 50,000 or 5,000 or maybe at least 500...but NO, it says just FIFTY! So, because I was hungry, just for the hell of it I checked the Seattle phone book yellow page listings under "PIZZA." Would you believe there was over 50 "merchants" selling pizza just half way through the alphabet in one city's phone book...and I still hadn't gotten to the N's thru Z's. There must have been over 100 "merchants" selling pizza alone. Although I must admit, I did find a couple of Pizza joints I hadn't checked out before, including "Hot Mamma's Pizza."
Yep, that's it. This has made me famished. I'm off to have a "Hot Mamma" right now. ;)
Pleasant dreams...
Roger |
