>
>April 1, 1999
>
> Dow Jones Newswires
>Gags Abound As Message Boards, Web Sites Honor April Fool's
>By JOHANNA BENNETT
>Dow Jones Newswires
>
>
>NEW YORK -- When a popular financial Web site flashed news that shares of
>eMeringue Inc. hit $218 less than three hours after going public at an
>offering price of $22, investors rushed to congratulate themselves.
>
>"eMeringue made me rich," gushed one investor, relaying the convoluted tale
>of how he obtained 10,000 pre-initial public offering shares after settling
>a lawsuit filed after he swallowed an uncooked chunk of meringue. "I can't
>believe my good fortune," he said.
>
>Can you say "April Fool's"?
>
>In a gag intended to celebrate April Fool's Day and spoof the recent craze
>over Internet public offerings, The Motley Fool announced that it was
>underwriting its first IPO. A small company, eMeringue, a former auto parts
>dealer turned pie baker, was being taken public April 1 in an offering
>initially priced at $11 a share.
>
>A Web site was created. Press releases were issued. A message board was
>especially designed for the company. And according to news flashes posted on
>The Motley Fool's Web page, within three hours, the offering was repriced to
>$22, opened at $84 and skyrocketed 891% from the offering price.
>
>By noon, eMeringue announced plans to use its stock in a hostile takeover of
>rival CyberCrust.
>
>"We are trying to teach a lesson," said David Forrest, community coordinator
>for The Motley Fool, which has long maintained that IPOs aren't safe
>investments for small investors. "What better way to do it than on April
>Fool's Day? We consider it our national holiday."
>
> The Motley Fool's Been Pulling Legs For Years
>The Motley Fool's fake IPO isn't the first time a popular financial Web site
>has lent itself to holiday jocularity.
>
>The Motley Fool has used its Web site for a spoof every April Fool's Day
>since 1994. Meanwhile, a group of well-known participants on the Silicon
>Investor has engaged a pair of online spoofs, creating message boards and Web
> sites for two fictional companies, FunPhone.com and WebNode.com.
>
>FunPhone.com. was touted on an Internet message board created two weeks ago
>as a private Internet company that offers customers free phone service via
>their desktop computers. A fake Web site was launched Thursday, including
>e-mail links to the company and press releases regarding a $1.9 million
>private placement.
>
>Meanwhile, the site also included ads for a "Titanium" Visa credit card,
>"scratch and sniff" phone cards, bourbon-flavored voice-enhancing spray and
>a lo-jack device designed to track down stolen kidneys. The site also issued
>warnings banning pregnant women and cardiac patients from using the phone
>service.
>
>"It's just an April Fool's gag," said "Tastes Like Chicken," one of the
>instigators.
>
>Elsewhere, pranksters who created a Web site for WebNode.com were slogging
>their way through the almost 1,000 e-mails received after they paid to have
>a bogus press release sent out on BusinessWire, one of two wire services for
>corporate press releases.
>
>WebNode.com, according to bogus corporate literature, sells nodes on the
>NGI, otherwise known as the Next Generation Internet. The joke revolved
>around news that the company was granted an exclusive contract by the U.S.
>Department of Energy to sell 40 million nodes to help raise $4 billion in
>funding for the NGI.
>
>"We figured if people could sell the Brooklyn Bridge, there must be a way to
>sell the Internet," said Jeff Mitchell, a 38-year-old Connecticut resident
>and one of the prank's instigators.
>
>Apparently, however, not everyone got the joke. Many of the e-mails sent to
>the make-believe company were from investors, said Janice Shell, a prank
>organizer.
>
>"This is beyond belief," Shell said. "These people are dying to buy this
>stuff."
>
> - Johanna Bennett; 201-938-5670
Tom
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