Bid.Com stock zooms up 34 per cent
GARY NORRIS
TORONTO (CP) - The hammer seems far from coming down on Bid.Com
International Inc., the Canadian Internet auctioneer whose stock price soared 34 per cent Wednesday.
Bid.Com, worth only 56 cents a share last October, closed at $26.80, up $6.90 on eight million shares traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. That volume represents 20 per cent of the 39 million shares outstanding.
The stock has more than doubled from $12.40 since the start of April, and Internet chat groups are agog with predictions of $30 by the end of the week - and beyond that $50 or more after the shares are listed on the U.S. Nasdaq market.
"Up, up and away!" as Stock Jock-e observed on Silicon Investor. "Forget valuation models, BII is worth what the next person is willing to pay for it. At the moment they are paying $23. So on that argument, why not pay $25 tomorrow? or $50 next week?"
Paul Godin, Bid.Com's chairman and chief executive, attributed the recent rise partly to the market's recognition of the value of the company's Dutch-auction software.
He refused again Wednesday to comment on persistent rumours that Bid.Com could be taken over by eBay, the leading American Internet auction site, beyond saying there are no negotiations between the two companies.
Fans of Bid.Com are eagerly awaiting its listing on the technology-oriented Nasdaq market, perhaps by mid-month, which would make it easier for throngs of American Internet-stock traders to play the issue.
"We will probably hit mid-$30s on the announcement," predicted Internet trader "fuddle."
In the meantime, to quote MIghty K C: "I wonder if anyone out there is still shorting this thing? LOL (laughing out loud) yeah, squeeze me baby!!!"
© The Canadian Press, 1999
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