SLEU: Due Diligence Questions
I became interested in SLEU after coming across their web site on a web search. I found the site useful, in spite of its shortcomings, and started researching the company this weekend. Below are my observations, concerns and questions regarding the company. I apologize in advance for the length of the post. I originally wanted to invest in this company, but now I need a lot more convincing. If anyone can answer some of my concerns and questions about the company, you would be doing me a great favor.
Observations
- iSleuth's meta-search of multiple, broad-topic, search engines like Altavista and Yahoo is handy but not unique technology. Nor, in my opinion is it as useful in that respect as many other similar web sites or offline meta-search tools. You can see just how numerous these web sites and tools are at: botspot.com
- The principal value of the site, in my mind, is its links to over 3,000 specialized databases and directories that exist on the web. I found that browsing the iSleuth's database categories was more effective than using their keyword search function. Once I found the appropriate category, the database & directory links were interesting and useful. General keyword search across these databases, however, often yielded mediocre results.
The engine that iSleuth uses to search its database links appears to be a free, publicly available PERL script called HTGRP. Anyone can download the script at: iamwww.unibe.ch. Interestingly, the Alpha search and News search utilizes Cold Fusion, Allaire's web-to-database development tool. (http://www.allaire.com) Cold Fusion is a very good, very easy to use but also very inexpensive technology. No proprietary technology here.
The category pages containing the links which I found useful appear to be static web pages, though they may have been generated by an application tool such as Cold Fusion, then stored as static pages for faster download. Each category page contains various FORM/POST or GET statements which allow the user to enter the search criteria on the iSleuth page, rather than having to go to original site which maintains the database. The results are displayed on the host page, not on iSleuth. This is very easy to accomplish technically. The code can be pulled right off the original site and placed on the iSleuth page (or any other page for that matter). The code also appears to be static so that if the original code changes, and the iSleuth page is not updated, the code on the iSleuth page won't work. This happened to me, regrettably, on far too many occasions.
- The current iSleuth's Shopper featuring CDNOW, Barnes&Noble, eToys.com, etc., is nothing more than links to the same affilliate programs that every geocities free personal web page and its cousin has on its site. I didn't appreciate the company's reference to these links as "the addition of several key advertisers".
- The Inktomi alliance seems WAY overplayed on the threads. Inktomi is offering their program to lots of sites. I counted 15 sites so far, and they just started. Would you like your website to be an Inktomi Shopping Engine distributor? Go here: inktomi.com
- The email service SLEU offers will do little to enhance traffic on the site. Web-based email services are a dime a dozen. Ditto on the proposed chat system. There is no "community" at iSleiuth to take advantage of those types of features.
- Regarding the 24/7 deal, I checked on the 24/7 Media site and could not find a listing for iSleuth as one of their advertisers. I did not contact 24/7 directly, however. See: 247media.com.
Questions
My principal question is, can't ANYONE re-create the iSleuth site easily? You would simply visit the original database sites, copy their FORM statements and make any modifications necessary to the display format so that the input fields conform to the desired style of the links page. You could also provide a simple form, as iSleuth does, to allow web sites to submit their own directory description, form action code, etc. See: isleuth.com
Unfortunately, iSleuth doesn't provide a mechanism for database hosts to update their submissions, which may be why there are so many iSleuth database links with bad code.
- According to the filings on SLEU located in the Standard and Poor's site, the company has only 4 employees. advisorinsight.com,
It doesn't seem that the site is being updated frequently. If you view the page source on the category pages, you can see that the pages have not been updated since around September or October. Not very up-to-date for an internet search engine. It appears that the original developer of the Internet Sleuth, Sally Elliot of the Internet Business Connection, continues to host and maintain the iSleuth site. See: intbc.com
Does anyone know any more about SLEU's staffing plans?
Also, the principal stockholder, with 62% of voting control, is Yucatan Holdings, Inc. I can't find any information about Yucatan (other than it is part of Mexico and there are lot's of Mayan ruins there ;-)). Does anyone have any more information?
- SLEU stated that the President and CEO. John J. Bennett, was previously President of Direct Digital Communications. I can't find anything about that company. Does anyone have any information?
- According to the Company press release, "the audited Consolidated Balance Sheet, for the period ending August 31, 1998, lists total assets of $6,149,871, total liabilities of $2,218,843, which amount includes absolutely no long-term debt." That's because the $2.2 million are CURRENT liabilities. Is it just me or is anyone else concerned that the company shows $1,000 in cash, $7,000 in Accounts Receivables and $2.2 million in current liabilities which, by definition, are supposed to be met in the short term? Where do they plan to get the funding? The company has negative working capital of over $2 million. See: advisorinsight.com
For those of you holding SLEU, please don't misinterpret my comments. I have no position in SLEU, nor any connection to the company. I REALLY wanted to invest in SLEU because I think the concept of aggregating links to special interest directories and databases on the web is an excellent idea, and I know of no site as good as iSleuth in that respect. But based on what I have learned so far, I am not ready to invest in this company, unless someone, I hope, can convince me otherwise. There is nothing I would like better than to invest in an internet company that is still undiscovered. I have had no contact with any of the company's representatives, and at this point don't plan to, so if any of you speak to them and can get some answers to my questions and concerns, I would appreciate hearing from you.
HH
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