SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Technology Stocks : Internet Capital Group Inc. (ICGE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: atskaggs who wrote (1158)1/20/2000 3:31:00 PM
From: michael  Respond to of 4187
 
Heres a cheap company that went into B2B. These guys are aggressive.

Related Quotes

CXS.TO
CXSN
5.65
4 1/16
+2.15
+1 9/16

delayed 20 mins - disclaimer


Thursday January 20, 8:17 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Counsel Corporation Acquires 40% Stake In Proscape Technologies, Inc.
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 20, 2000--(NASDAQ:CXSN - news; TSE:CXS. - news)

Leading Provider Of Innovative Business To Business Fact

Based Sales And Marketing Information Software

Systems To Fortune 1000 Companies

- Transaction Follows Recent Counsel Investments in
Delano Technology Corporation, Impower Inc. and
Hip Interactive Corp.
- Reflects Counsel's Continued Aggressive Pursuit of
Initiatives To Broaden Its Investment Focus and Build
Shareholder Value, With Emphasis on Internet- and Other
Technology-based Enterprises
Reflecting its goals of broadening its investment focus and building value for its shareholders, Counsel Corporation, of Toronto, Ontario (TSE: CXS / Nasdaq: CXSN) (``Counsel' or the ``Company') today announced that it has acquired a 40% stake in Proscape Technologies, Inc. Proscape, which is privately held, is a leading provider of business-to-business fact-based sales and marketing information systems to Fortune 1000 companies.

Based in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, Proscape Technologies, Inc. is the leading provider of business-to-business, fact-based, enterprise sales and marketing information software systems. Proscape's enterprise software systems are designed to enable Fortune 1000 companies to automate their marketing and sales functions by integrating executive strategy, market data and tactical sales execution into compelling, fact-based messages delivered at the point of sale. The Company's products operate over the Internet, corporate-based Intranets and client-server networks. Proscape is poised to redefine the front office marketplace. Proscape has the only solution that enables true fact-based selling - integrating marketing assets and best-practices with client specific enterprise, syndicated and point-of-sale data to improve selling effectiveness by extending into the customer interaction to provide targeted, competitive insight to the customer. Proscape's customers include: Adecco, Inc., Anheuser-Busch, Inc., Adelphia Business Solutions, The Keebler Company, The Pillsbury Company, TDS Telecommunications Corporation, Triton PCS (SunCom), VoiceStream Wireless Corporation, Wilmington Trust Company, and Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, among others.

Allan Silber, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Counsel Corporation, said: ``We're tremendously excited about this investment in Proscape. Like our recent investments in Impower Inc., Hip Interactive Corp., and Delano Technology Corporation, it reflects Counsel's commitment to actively pursue new areas for investment and growth, with particular emphasis on Internet- and technology-related enterprises. Together with our core pharmaceutical assets, these activities provide us with a meaningful expansion of our investment portfolio.

``We are particularly delighted to partner with Proscape founder and CEO Timothy Healy and his outstanding management team.
We look forward to working closely with Tim, Derek Pollock, SVP

of Marketing and Sales, Erik Roll, VP of Research and Product Development, and the entire Proscape management team.``

``I am very excited to have Counsel Corporation join the Proscape team,' said Tim Healy, President and CEO of Proscape Technologies, Inc. ``Historically, our focus has been on the development of the Proscape software system into a truly innovative solution that leverages the Internet, technology and data to revolutionize the marketing and sales process. Now that Proscape has been recognized as the technology leader of fact-based marketing and sales systems, our focus now turns to the global expansion of our sales and marketing efforts. I firmly believe that Counsel and Proscape create a unique synergy of skills and resources that will enable Proscape to continue to attain our aggressive goals.'

On November 1, 1999, Counsel Corporation announced that its Board of Directors and management had determined that they could best build value for its shareholders by exploring new areas for investment and growth in addition to the Company's core pharmaceutical assets. The Internet and other technology-based enterprises were identified as areas that are strategically aligned with Counsel's overall philosophy. Since that time, investments by Counsel have included the following:

a 33% stake in Impower, Inc., of Princeton, New Jersey, whose principal business unit, Impower.net, is an emerging leader in the rapidly growing area of transaction-based Internet direct marketing.
a 3.6% stake in Delano Technology Corporation (www.delanotech.com), of Richmond Hill, Ontario, a provider of interactive-based e-business communication solutions. Delano markets innovative software that enables companies to automate, personalize and manage ongoing interactions with customers, partners, suppliers and employees.
A 4.6% stake (1.5 million shares) in Hip Interactive Corp., of Toronto, Ontario, (CVX:HIPI), a fully integrated name brand e-commerce business selling consumer PC software and video games.
Mr. Silber said: ``This is an exciting time at Counsel Corporation. We are broadening our investment focus in leading-edge companies that are defining the future of business and e-commerce. We are also broadening our own business activities and investment portfolio well beyond our roots in the healthcare industry, by leveraging our own in-house strategic, financial and marketing expertise. In so-doing, we are creating what we believe is a solid foundation on which to build shareholder value.'

This release involves forward-looking statements with respect to business plans and expectations of Counsel Corporation. The accuracy of these statements involves a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, changes in economic and market conditions, financing, changes in governmental regulations and laws as well as other risk factors detailed in Counsel's securities filings, to which recipients of this release are referred for additional information.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
Counsel Corporation



To: atskaggs who wrote (1158)1/20/2000 9:31:00 PM
From: Susan G  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 4187
 
Yahoo has 2/1, but it's most likely likely the wrong date!
I usually call the company to get the right info, but haven't done it yet.

From today: Business-to-business e-commerce company incubator Internet Capital Group (Nasdaq: ICGE) tacked on $11 5/8 to $150 3/8 after Bloomberg News reported that CEO Walter Buckley told a conference today that the company plans to at least double its investments to $1.2 billion this year from $600 million in 1999.

This is what seems to be more important in a VC company than earnings. The value of their assets, the companies they hold. And how many of their holdings do IPOs. They don;t really have earnings, just portfolios or assets. From what I remember of the last earnings conference call, this is what seemed to be of the most importance. And VERT's move had to have helped this quarter.

Here's an interesting article from the Street.com today.

ICG and FreeMarkets: Why You Gotta Have Mo'
By Adam Lashinsky
Silicon Valley Columnist
1/19/00 7:00 AM ET

Who's Got It...
The saga of Internet Capital Group (ICGE:Nasdaq - news) and FreeMarkets (FMKT:Nasdaq - news) has become a tale of two stocks.

Both find themselves in the sweet spot of the craze for Internet companies that transact business among businesses rather than with consumers. Both have rapidly growing -- albeit unprofitable -- businesses with impressive management teams. Both had explosive initial public offerings in 1999. And both Internet Capital and FreeMarkets are wildly overvalued by any traditional stock-market measuring stick.


SiliconStreet: Join the discussion on TSC message boards.


ICG is worth roughly 10 times the identifiable assets in its portfolio, and FreeMarkets trades for 300 times its trailing four quarters of reported revenue. In comparison, investors are paying about $18 for every dollar of historical revenue of Oracle (ORCL:Nasdaq - news), shares of which hit a near record of 114 1/2 Tuesday.

And yet, these two highfliers are moving in opposite directions. ICG -- buffeted last week by the inevitable, incisive and insightful negative write-up in Barron's -- is holding steady and gained 5 3/4, or 4%, to 139 1/4 Tuesday on absolutely no news. FreeMarkets, whose stock has been plunging since its second-largest customer, General Motors (GM:NYSE - news), announced that it would stop using the FreeMarkets reverse auction service. FreeMarkets shares fell 26 3/4, or 13%, Tuesday to 171 1/4, again apparently without a hint of new developments.

This is a classic example of one company whose story has momentum and another who's clearly losing it.

Take Internet Capital first. Not for nothing have professional traders started referring to this company as "I see GE," a play on its ticker and its investor, partner and competitor, General Electric (GE:NYSE - news). By owning pieces in a variety of "market makers" -- companies that maintain an electronic market for mundane goods like plastics or livestock -- ICG sees itself as a next-generation General Electric. Or better.

"We're not manufacturers of anything," boasts Ken Fox, the 29-year-old co-founder of ICG and a managing director in the firm's San Francisco office. "Ours is a next-generation model." To wit, ICG owns the transactions, not the hard assets.

Fox, who interrupts an interview to take a call from a Fortune 50 CEO whose name you'd know, says that through investments in companies like Commerx (plastics), Bidcom (construction) and MetalSite (steel), ICG now has positions in 27 of the 50 global commercial markets in which it intends to play.

But what about the valuation of more than $35 billion for no profits and just a handful of companies with recognizable value? That's simply a leap of faith. There is the fact that two ICG companies -- Universal Access and eMerge Interactive -- are in registration to go public. And Fox says 12 more with real revenues are being positioned for IPOs in the near future.

Therein lies the cynical reason why -- as long as the market for IPOs stays hot, so too will ICG's stock -- at least relatively speaking: With scores of IPOs on the horizon, no investment bank will stand up and challenge ICG's story, thus kissing goodbye the opportunity to underwrite the IPOs of its portfolio companies.

...And Who Doesn't
And then there's FreeMarkets, an equally impressive company. Pittsburgh-based FreeMarkets runs industry-specific reverse auctions whereby buyers bid on industrial projects at successively lower prices. The company's innovation is to represent only the buyer, who pays for the auction. Unlike competitor Commerce One (CMRC:Nasdaq - news), which collects money from both buyers and sellers.

"In the B2B sector, if you're selling to big businesses, and if you give away something for free, you get a really low-level buyer," says Glen Meakem, FreeMarkets' 35-year-old founder and CEO, during a recent meeting in London.

FreeMarkets attracted plenty of attention in December, when it offered shares to institutional investors at 48 that later closed their first day at 280. Attracted by the B2B glow and investors like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Dell's (DELL:Nasdaq - news) venture arm, the public gobbled up shares of FreeMarkets.

That changed on Jan. 4, the same day analysts for the company's underwriters began their coverage, when FreeMarkets announced that General Motors was bolting. Now the stock is in free fall (down about 50%), shareholder suits are piling up alleging that FreeMarkets knew more than it said about GM and FreeMarkets is sagging while competitors rise. For example, as its shares fell Tuesday, shares of procurement software seller Ariba (ARBA:Nasdaq - news) jumped 4% and Commerce One added another 8%.

Is there anything wrong with FreeMarkets? Despite the loss of GM, probably not. Right now, it just doesn't have momentum. Any number of things could juice up the stock again, like a major customer announcement or the disclosure of an impressive fourth quarter. Analyst Jamie Friedman at FreeMarkets underwriter Goldman Sachs is expecting the latter. Still, the investment bank gives FreeMarkets a market outperform, its second-highest rating. After all, at 171, it's still more than a "three-bagger." That used to be considered a success.

copyright 2000 The Street.com