I don't know if they still belong on this thread or not, but the CEO of Bluefly.com showed up on CNBC this morning. The topic was a (IMO)ho-hum marketing deal with Excite. The CEO was interviewed rather aggressively by Tom Costello, who seems to be making a bid for the Mark Haines Bulldog Award for 1999. It was a good interview, and the CEO was obviously uncomfortable answering the tough questions. The most interesting topic was a news release which went out during market hours yesterday, and which stated that BFLY would be making an announcement on CNBC this morning. This caused the stock price to jump a couple of points yesterday afternoon. According to the CEO, it was an "embargoed" news release which which was "accidently" sent out. I've got a feeling that the SEC will be conducting their own accident investigation.
I'm afraid of shorting anything internet right now, but this one is tempting. Their previous business failed, there's no indication they'll make money anytime soon, cash is limited, their business model is questionable, and if by some miracle it does work, it's easily replicated. What makes me especially skeptical is that the CEO keeps saying they'll make good margins because they don't have to spend money on bricks and mortar. I guess he thinks that building and maintaining an E-Commerce site is cheap. This may be true in his experience, because Bluefly.com is slow as the dickens. In looking through their merchandise I'm reminded of a Potemkin village. I went through the men's pants and shirts, and when I clicked on any for more information there were usually only one or two sizes available. That's bad enough for shirts, but pants???
If I'm ever going to be comfortable shorting an internut, this is the one.
FWIW,
Mark |
