To all INKT new buyers or shoppers, this is why I'm in this stock:
A reprint of an article linked to www.inktomi.com :
And to all INKT new buyers, or shoppers, this is why I'm here..
A reprint of an article linked to www.inktomi.com :
Inktomi's Search for Treasure
Infonauts
December 31, 1998
by Rochelle Garner
In many technology products, scalability is everything. However, few high-tech leaders have proved to be scalable--most can operate in either an entrepreneurial organization or an established management structure, but not both. However, Dave Peterschmidt, who has faced some tough management situations, says he has learned to adjust his style to fit the size and needs of the company he's running.
Peterschmidt's abilities have been particularly valuable at Inktomi Corp., the San Mateo, Calif.-based developer of scalable software for the Internet. During the past two and a half years, the straight-shooting, candid president and CEO has been part coach, part business professor and part father-confessor to an unseasoned staff. Recently, as Inktomi's team has matured, Peterschmidt has turned his attention to developing relationships with some of the world's largest, most successful companies.
At last count, 16 portal and service providers had licensed Inktomi's search-engine technology, and many of the world's largest Internet carriers--including America Online Inc., Ameritech Corp., BellSouth Corp. and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.--had purchased Inktomi's pricey Traffic Server software for caching Internet traffic. Most impressive to Wall Street, Inktomi's June 1998 IPO ranked among the five most lucrative public offerings of last year. After announcing a 2-for-1 stock split, Inktomi's stock (Nasdaq: INKT)
closed at $132 per share on Wednesday, Dec. 30, a dramatic leap from its opening price of $18. For fiscal 1998, ended Sept. 30, the company lost $22.4 million, compared with a loss of $10.4 million the prior year. Revenues, however, were $20.4 million, up 253 percent over the previous year.
"The Street likes the idea that our search engine, with its two- and three-year contracts, provides an annuity revenue stream," says the 51-year-old Peterschmidt, his balding pate proof that he's a generation older than nearly all of Inktomi's engineering staff. "And [because] the contracts are based on transactions, our cash register rings every time someone searches [for information on the sites run by] one of our 16 partners."
He adds, "Investors also like the fact that raffic Server is sold direct. That gives us quarterly revenue from the license charges, along with annual fees for maintenance and upgrade subscriptions. And [because] both products are indexed to the Internet, our revenue grows at the same rate that the Internet does." |
