ZN,EBAY,MSFT,MWD,TWX,YHOO Meeker regrets Net stock silence
May 26, 2004 14:40:19 (ET)
WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- The queen of the Internet knows she made a mistake.
"I am not happy that I did not downgrade [Net] stocks back then" during the boom, she said in an interview published this month in Business 2.0. "That is a disappointment."
However, the Internet analyst at Morgan Stanley (MWD, Trade) pointed out: "I was skeptical of most of the companies I saw back in the 1990s."
Reflecting on the criticism that investment analysts became too close to the investment bankers and may have "adjusted" their opinions about companies, Meeker called the last few years a "challenging period. Having my ethics questioned was really tough."
But Meeker is still bullish on the Internet. "For the next year, we think the Internet space is moderately undervalued." Nevertheless, she did not offer any stock tips.
Hundreds of Web domains with the word "google" have been registered on the Internet in the past two months. Some 500 have been registered this month alone, according to Gary Price, editor of ResourceShelf.com. They include "googleshack.com," "googleexposed.com" and "google-dance-tool.com."
Online homesteaders may be acquiring the Web addresses with the intention of launching a business, or perhaps grabbing domains Google would want and buy.
Price's research also indicates Google has plans for new sites itself, having registered six domains. They include "google-foundation.net," "googlenews.org" and "googleblog.info."
The Web's largest retailer thinks high gasoline prices could help its business.
Jeff Bezos, chairman of Amazon.com (AMZN, Trade), said the cost of gas could be an incentive for people to do more online shopping at his company's annual meeting, according to a report of the meeting in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
In addition, Amazon.com intends to get much bigger while it keeps cutting prices. "There is still a lot of room for category expansion," Bezos reportedly added. "We intend to have the lowest prices, and we think our business model supports that."
The number of visitors to NationalGeographic.com vaulted to almost 3.6 million in April, according to an analysis by ComScore Media Metrix.
The firm attributed the 86 percent increase from April to interest in meteors passing Earth, the arrival of cicadas on the East Coast and daylight savings time. The site was the top-gaining Web property in April, the researchers said.
Other sites showing marked growth include Carsdirect.com, MLB.com and NFL Internet Group properties. There was no change in the overall most popular Web properties during the month. These were Yahoo sites (YHOO, Trade), Time Warner network (TWX, Trade), MSN-Microsoft sites (MSFT, Trade), Google sites and eBay (EBAY, Trade).
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