If This Red Herring Article Has Been Posted, My Apologies...
It's been hard to get through the endless back-and-forth,
parry-and-thrust that's dominated the thread today. So, again,
if this article is old news, pardon me. But, I like Red Herring
a lot... It covers the state of play of the NSCP negotiations.
These negotiations, if successful from SEEK's standpoint, will
make much of the short-term view... ALMOST irrelevant. I say,
ALMOST... because we do have SUCH BEACONS OF WISDOM as Michael
Murphy flapping his lips in a remarkable self-promotion exercise
that rivals only Paula Jones and Lewinsky's attorney. (Not a
slap against attorneys, I absolutely assure you...) Anyway,
I will again remark that it was interesting to me that SEEK
was NOT MENTIONED in the original "free e-mail" press release.
Having on occasions been tasked with writing such releases for
public companies in the midst of important negotiations, I
recognize what MIGHT BE a bit of a feint... a sly little dodge...
to hide what's behind the curtains. But, that's rank speculation
on my part.
**********
INFOSEEK HAS A BLOWOUT QUARTER
By Peter D. Henig
April 24, 1998
They must be doing something right down there at
Infoseek (SEEK), because ever since Harry Motro
took over as chief executive officer, the company has
been blowing the doors off earnings expectations.
Infoseek has just reported that revenues for the first
quarter 1998 were $14.3 million, a 131 percent
increase over revenues of $6.2 million a year ago.
Although the company reported a net loss for the
quarter of -0.05 per share, as compared with -0.16 a
year ago, the Street should be pleasantly surprised as
analysts were expecting a deeper loss of -0.10 per
share, and Infoseek now appears to be on an
accelerated path towards breakeven.
As any investor can tell you, Infoseek has been on a
roll. Widely regarded as one of the last remaining
"undervalued" Internet stocks -- if such a thing exists --
the company has been making some smart strategic
moves recently, including the acquisition of Webchat
Broadcasting System, an online community of chat
services, as well as marketing and promotions
campaigns which have boosted pageviews 41 percent
since December.
But what's really captured our attention is Netscape's (
NSCP) recent moves to compete head-on with "Web
portals" -- the search engines and directories that
garner the biggest online audiences. At the same time,
its traffic agreements with its search engine partners are
expiring.
A spokeswoman for Netscape would not comment on
rumors that Infoseek might be its choice of search
engine, either as a licensing agreement or as its primary
partner, only stating that "we are currently in
negotiations with all of our partners given that our
current traffic agreements are expiring, and we hope to
continue offering the availability of all of our partner's
search engines."
Market watchers say the fur is flying. "I've heard
several rumors, actually," said Ryan Jacob, portfolio
manager of the Internet Fund. "I've heard they might
license it from someone else, or find a partner like
Infoseek." Either way, Netscape has made it clear they
would like to develop Netcenter into a primary
entrance to the Web, although the company has not
specified how its plans will play out among the search
engines.
A strategic deal with Netscape could vault Infoseek
into the No. 2 position among search engines, second
only to Yahoo, and would be a further boon to its
stock. In after-hours trading on Thursday, which is
cheap in comparison with Lycos (LCOS), Yahoo (
YHOO), and Excite (XCIT).
Right now, lips are zipped around Infoseek and
Netscape -- and at Hambrecht & Quist which is
Netscape's investment banking firm. Are on-again,
off-again plans to spin off Netcenter in an IPO putting
H&Q into an SEC-mandated quiet period? The firm
couldn't comment -- but we'll keep digging. |
