holiday shoppers expected to spend 6 billion on-line...twice that of last year.
upcoming hot ipo..?...clic...
Slowly donning party hats
Jupiter predicts online holiday sales to double
By Bambi Francisco, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 5:28 PM ET Sep 21, 1999
Internet Daily
Net Headlines
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Despite an broad market slump, optimism
that this holiday season will be a click fest helped to lift many cyber
shares.
Jupiter Communications, in its latest report on
holiday shopping expectations, said it expects
consumers to spend $6 billion online -- twice as
much as last holiday season. The Manhattan-based
Net research outfit's report is among the most
bullish outlooks to date. Jupiter analysts also
predicted that $1 billion will be spent on travel
services.
The bullish report sent shares of Priceline.com
(PCLN: news, msgs) and Preview Travel (PTVL:
news, msgs) up more than 4.5 percent each.
The enthusiasm extended to the so-called Internet
blue chips, America Online (AOL: news, msgs),
Yahoo (YHOO: news, msgs) and EBay (EBAY:
news, msgs), and select Net infrastructure stocks.
EBay rebounded 4 5/8, or 3.4 percent, to 140 5/8,
after falling more than 10 percent in the past two
sessions. America Online gained 2 1/16, or 2.5
percent, to 84 7/8. Yahoo rose 1 3/16, or 0.7 percent, to 169 9/1.
But the overall Net group finished lower. The 18-stock Goldman Sachs
Internet Index fell 0.7 percent. The Goldman index lost 6 percent last
week. The Amex Internet Index lost 1.3 percent Tuesday.
Against the tide
Even so, Net stocks performed relatively well as the broader market sold
off.
"Internet stocks fared reasonably well, and that's amazing," said Jonathan
Cohen, head of Internet research at Manhattan-based Wit Capital.
Cohen, however, said he still expects a bit of choppy trading until the
holiday shopping season gets closer.
Gearing up on the back end to ensure that corporations are Web-ified for
an onslaught of online shopping activity are companies that provide
e-commerce software.
Vignette (VIGN: news, msgs) and IBM (IBM: news, msgs) have joined
forces to integrate some Net software products for businesses. Shares of
Vignette jumped 2 9/16, or 3.5 percent, to 75 9/16.
Another infrastructure play that's considered a big beneficiary of the
buildup of the Net economy is Internet Capital Group, a holding
company, or Net incubator, of some 36 Internet infrastructure companies.
Shares (ICGE: news, msgs) surged as high as 107 1/2, before ending the
day off 1/4 at 97 1/4. The stock had bolted 20 percent on Monday.
"At these levels, it's pushed around a great deal by day traders," said Ed
McCabe, an Internet analyst at Merrill Lynch, who has a two-year price
target of $125 on the company. The market, with the stock at its current
levels, values ICG at over $12.2 billion.
"If they execute on their opportunity, long term their market cap will be
multiples of what it is now," said McCabe. "This assumes that a handful of
their partner companies become home runs."
McCabe said he expects Benchmarking Partners, Breakaway Solutions,
ComputerJobs.com, Deja.com, Commercequest and Universal Access to
go public within the next 12 months. Some of the most exciting
opportunities exist among the incubator's smaller companies, said
McCabe. Stay tuned.
U.S. Interactive (USIT: news, msgs) and VerticalNet (VERT: news,
msgs) are two of Internet Capital Group's publicly traded partner
companies.
Upbeat about solid traffic
Yahoo had risen 3.2 percent Monday after the latest Media Metrix report
showed that Yahoo sites gained 2.7 percent sequentially, exceeding the
overall growth in traffic.
Safa Rashtchy, an Internet analyst at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, released
a very optimistic note on the leading portal titled "A Wake-Up Call."
Rashtchy said he expects Yahoo to exceed 90 million users and produce
another "blowout quarter." He reiterated a "strong buy" rating on the
stock.
Shares of About.com rocketed 4 1/4, or 12 percent, to 39 1/4, extending
Monday's 4 percent pop. The company is riding high as it delivered a
slam-dunk August traffic performance. The site, according to Media
Metrix, was the fastest-growing site among the top 25 most-visited sites
last month.
About.com, a network of vertical sites formerly known as MiningCo.com,
saw its traffic outpace the industry average, rising 7 percent to become the
15th-most-visited site in August, up from No. 17 in the previous month.
About.com has 650 vertical sites designed to bring buyers and sellers
together.
Additionally, EOffering Internet analyst Andrea Williams started coverage
on About.com with a "buy" rating.
SportsLine tender
SportsLine USA (SPLN: news, msgs) said it's buying the remainder of its
outstanding 5 percent convertible subordinated notes.
"This is probably a reflection of the Viacom/CBS merger and what
SportsLine perceives this deal doing for their profitability," said Rick
Hochman, a convertible analyst at BancBoston Robertson Stephens.
"Why should they pay a coupon if they don't need to?" SportsLine, like
MarketWatch.com, the publisher of the CBS.MarketWatch.com site,
has CBS as a key investor.
But SportsLine's decision to buy back its convertible bonds has
hedge-fund managers scrambling to unwind their positions.
Shares of the content site jumped 3, or 12 percent, to 28 3/8 after a 2.6
percent decline Monday. Traders said there is tremendous short covering
because hedge funds that have long positions in SportsLine convertible
bonds are typically short the stock.
SportsLine bonds were quoted on the Convertbond.com Web site last
night at 64 1/2 level. Those bonds are currently trading at 74 1/2 to 75,
according to Convertbond.com, an online convertible-bond analysis
service.
Net IPOs storm the market -- more 'B2B' plays
Fifteen Internet-related IPOs are expected to storm the market this week,
including one that's a rival to high-flying BroadVision (BVSN: news,
msgs).
Calico Commerce (CLIC: news, msgs), a provider of
business-to-business e-commerce software, is among the hottest IPOs to
watch for this week. Goldman Sachs is the lead underwriter.
Last week, Goldman released a mega-report on the promising
opportunities within the business-to-business -- or B2B, as it's becoming
known -- space. |
