Not Our Big Dog (I wish SI wouldn't use duplicate names) but an amazing Internet insanity story...
A 'Big Dog' in Chat Rooms
Takes a Wild Internet Ride
By JOHN R. EMSHWILLER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
CLIFTON, N.J. -- Mike "Big Dog" Nichols has gone from textile-coatings salesman
to Internet-stock guru to online investor-relations specialist to co-founder of a
publicly traded cyberspace-shopping mall with a market value of about $100 million.
All in less than a year.
The 42-year-old Mr. Nichols has seen his wealth,
at least on paper, soar by millions of dollars in
recent weeks because of his holdings in the
Internet shopping mall, called iChargeit Inc., that
trades on the OTC Bulletin Board. "It's
unbelievable," he says.
It is the Internet stock-trading world, where mindboggling tales are almost mundane.
However, even in an arena where companies with barely enough revenue for a cup
of coffee can have Himalayan market capitalizations, few stories illustrate more
graphically the crazy power of the Net than Big Dog's ride.
The ride started in this town across the Hudson River from Manhattan, where Mr.
Nichols lives with his wife and one of his two daughters. For 12 years, he sold vinyl
coatings for textiles.
Stock-Chat Rooms
In November 1997, he began exploring the Internet stock-chat world. There, he
found adventure, intrigue, camaraderie and combat. There were passwords to
private electronic "rooms" where strangers from around the world discussed
"mo-mo mamas," "scam dogs," "bashers" and "pump and dumps." Amid all this
Internet stock-trading lingo was the lure of making a fortune without leaving the
upstairs living room of his duplex. It was, Mr. Nichols recalls, "a world you wouldn't
believe."
Like many Internet traders, he chose a new name for
this new world. The nearly 6-foot-5-inch, 370-pound
Mr. Nichols became Big Dog.
He quickly became a big bark on the chat circuit. By
last summer, over 500 people had bookmarked Big
Dog on the Web site Silicon Investor, making him
one of the most-followed names on that popular stock-chat operation. In June, he
quit his sales job to trade full time.
He had a flair for the dramatic. "Move over TokyoMex BIG DOG is in town," was the
message Mr. Nichols posted early last year on a Silicon Investor chat site that had
been started by another Internet stock-chat guru. Mr. Nichols and his allies posted
so many hostile messages that TokyoMex turned the site over to Mr. Nichols, who
promptly renamed it the Dog House.
In the fall, someone started a chat site called "The life and times of BIG DOG, a
historical perspective." Fans portrayed him as a savvy stock trader. Critics focused
on his poorer picks. "If you place his brain on the edge of a razor blade ... it would
look like a Tic Tac on a 4 lane highway," one volunteered.
Online Consultant
Tiring of the turmoil, Mr. Nichols says he decided to use
his Internet fame to start an online investor-relations and
media firm, called Capital Financial Consultants. Mr.
Nichols says his firm has signed up as clients several
little companies listed on the OTC Bulletin Board, which
is maintained by the National Association of Securities
Dealers for stocks that don't qualify for the Nasdaq Stock
Market itself. The companies have paid him in stock that
he estimates has a current value of a few million dollars,
though given the volatility and difficulty in selling many
Bulletin Board issues any such paper wealth could have
the shelf life of a mirage. But even if he gets nothing from
that stock, he says, "I'm not afraid to lose money
because I know I can make more."
Capital Financial Consultants' Web site carries a
disclaimer saying it is paid by some of the companies mentioned on the site.
Whether the disclosure efforts satisfy the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission, which has been cracking down on what it views as inadequate
disclosure in this area, isn't clear. The agency doesn't comment on specific Internet
sites unless it files a case, an SEC spokesman says.
Cyberspace Mall
In an effort to further cash in on cyberspace, Mr. Nichols recently teamed up with
his Internet buddy Cavalry, also known as Jesse Cohen, a Huntington Beach, Calif.,
man who was developing the iChargeit shopping mall.
The pair brought iChargeit public last
month by merging it with a shell
company that had no operations but was
trading on the OTC Bulletin Board. Mr.
Cohen is iChargeit's chairman and chief
executive. He initially said Mr. Nichols
was vice president, but later upgraded
him to president. "Call me bottle washer
as long as I get the money," Mr. Nichols
says.
In recent weeks, iChargeit's stock has
gone from less than $4 to as high as $29,
and is currently trading at about $14. Mr.
Cohen says he owns about 32% of the
company's 7.2 million shares. Mr. Nichols
says he has a stake of about 17%.
Suppliers and shareholders of the shell company have much of the rest, Mr. Cohen
says.
So far, only about 200,000 iChargeit shares are free to trade under federal securities
law, though more will become available in coming months. Messrs. Cohen and
Nichols say their shares are still restricted.
Counting on Big Gains
With a small trading volume, iChargeit shares weren't hit by Monday's big sell-off in
Internet stocks, nor was Mr. Nichols, who says his holdings don't include any of the
big online names. "Every Internet stock out there is overpriced," he says, adding
"except mine" in response to a question.
In the first three months of this year, iChargeit had $30,000 in revenue, Mr. Cohen
says. The company doesn't yet have publicly available financial statements, but
hopes to have them soon.
Its 14 online-mall tenants include a florist, a coffee seller, a consumer-loan broker
and an art gallery. They pay iChargeit between 10% and 20% of sales revenue and
about $140 per month in rent, Mr. Cohen says. The mall also recently began carrying
banner ads from other sites.
Some tenants are clients of Mr. Nichols's investor-relations firm. Mr. Cohen has big
expansion plans and Mr. Nichols plays down the competitive threat of bigger
Internet-mall operations. "There are enough people to go around," he says.
Naturally, iChargeit has already spawned Internet chat sites. Critics howled when
they discovered that the initial artist featured at the mall's gallery was Mr. Cohen's
mother. Mr. Cohen says his mother is a fine painter and that other artists have been
added.
Mr. Nichols shrugs off the criticisms as he focuses on the hoped-for bottom line. He
says he sees no reason why he can't eventually reap tens of millions of dollars from
his iChargeit stock. With the Internet, "I feel like anything I want, I can get," he
says.
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