Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

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.

Microcap & Penny Stocks : LifeOne, Inc. (LONE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr. Jens Tingleff who wrote (1784)	3/16/2000 3:08:00 AM
From: Puck	Respond to of 1834

SCOTIABANK GROUP ACQUIRES U.S. TRANSFER AGENT TORONTO, June 1 - Scotiabank announced today the completion of a transaction to acquire 100 per cent of the common and preferred shares of Colorado-based transfer agent, American Securities Transfer and Trust, Inc. (``AST'). ``The acquisition of AST, the ninth largest commercial transfer agent in the United States, complements Montreal Trust's leadership position in our two core businesses -- stock transfer and corporate trust services,' explained Paul LeBlanc, Executive Vice President, Montreal Trust, who will assume responsibility for the AST operations. ``With Montreal Trust acting as the transfer agent for over 62% of all publicly listed companies in Canada, and AST acting as the U.S. agent, we will be able to provide our clients a full range of multi-jurisdictional services, including the ability to consider public offerings in both countries. Specifically, the acquisition permits us to expand from the co-agent services we currently provide through The Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Company of New York, to full service main agent capabilities in the U.S.,' LeBlanc added. ``AST's success has been built on the high level of customer service we provide for our clients,' said Charles Harrison, President & CEO, American Securities Transfer and Trust, Inc. ``We're pleased that Montreal Trust is equally committed to maintaining similar high standards of customer service. For this reason, the Scotiabank Group is an excellent fit for our organization and together we'll be able to enhance the scope of services we can offer our clients.' With more than $211 billion in assets, Scotiabank is one of North America's largest financial services companies. It is also Canada's most international bank, with more than 1,700 branches and offices in 53 countries around the world. In 1994, Montreal Trust became a wholly owned subsidiary of The Bank of Nova Scotia and a member of the Scotiabank Group. Montreal Trust is Canada's leading provider of stock transfer and corporate trust services. Incorporated in 1889, Montreal Trust operates in all major centres across Canada. Incorporated in 1969, American Securities Transfer and Trust, Inc. is the 9th largest commercial transfer agent in the United States, ranked by number of shareholders serviced and the 8th largest, ranked by number of issues. AST is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and has a diverse client base across the U.S. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For further information: Paul LeBlanc, Executive Vice President, Montreal Trust, (416) 860-5503; Charles Harrison, President & CEO, American Securities Transfer and Trust, Inc., (303) 298-5370

To: Mr. Jens Tingleff who wrote (1784)	3/16/2000 4:57:00 AM
From: Puck	Respond to of 1834

Regarding LONE's valuation in light of it's pending 10% stake in Communicata. It seems as though the payoff for future Communicata shareholders will be in 2001, when, according to Communicata's business projections, it's revenue will explode to $14 mil. from $800 thousand this year. How do we value a company growing from point A to point B. It seems to me that two metrics are key. The first is a summation of the private market values of Communicata's stakes in its incubator companies. Analysts have attempted to use this method to determine an intrinsic value for other publicly traded de facto venture capital companies, such as SFE and CMGI. Since we don't know what companies Communicata is targeting as acquisitions, although we know they are in such talks, we don't have enough information to attempt to make this type of calculation and it is therefore useless for the time being. The other pertinent metric is revenues. Even though this company projects profitability, since so few internet companies are posting earnings yet, revenues remains the conventional basis for valuation with internet consulting companies. We know what the projections are. How to value them? Software companies are lucky to have a multiple to rev's of 10. Internet technology and consulting companies, including those in advertising, often command a multiple to rev's of 25 to 30 or more. 30 seems like a nice round number well within the norm so I'll use it for a back of the envelope calculation. At $800 thou., a price to revenue multiple of 30 gets us to a market cap. for Communicata of $24 mil. Of this LifeOne shareholder claim 10%, or $2.4 mil..The last presentation by LONE of its outstanding shares was 18 mil., I think. Dividing the value of LONE's stake in Communicata by LONE's shares outstanding gives us a per share value of $.13, or about where the current price is. The payoff for current LifeOne shareholders will be next year if the projected rev's materialize. A P/R ratio of 30 applied to $14 mil. gets us to a Communicata market cap. of $280 mil. of which LONE shareholders will own an amount worth $28 mil., or $1.55/share. If everything works out, LONE's current share price will look like a bargain in retrospect. There are several unknown variables, each of which makes speculation about the future return for current LONE shareholders extremely risky. The most obvious of these risks is that while the reverse merger appears to be progressing toward to completion at a reasonable rate, it's finality is by no means assured, especially given that judicial approval is necessary. Though I rate the odds very high of its occuring. Variable number two is how many shares of LONE and thus of Communicata will be outstanding when the spin-off is complete. The final press release Brent Chapel issues before the trustee assumed control over operations stated a belief by management that the bankruptcy declaration would obviate the potential conversion of the remaining outstanding convertible debentures, effectively nullifying them. We common shareholders should pray this happens to save us from massive dilution but should not take anything for granted until the "details" as Mr. Hanson calls them, are finalized. The third variable is how realistic Communicata's 2001 rev. projection is. We have no idea what its underlying assumptions are, which are necessary to know in order to make a judgment for ourselves about the projections' realism. It is somewhat comforting to know that more than one expert at internet company valuation has deemed the projections on Communicata's website to be realistic. I was interested in buying LONE shares at a price of less than $.10 but couldn't get my order filled. I've decided not to chase it as the price rises but instead to wait for further developments. I think a less risky way to be involved in Communicata's development might be to wait until their spin-off is completed to alleviate transaction related risk and then to purchase their newly created stock. The rewards may not be quite as great but still quite compelling and the risk would be substantially less by several different aspects. I welcome anyone to add their comments about how to value LONE's potential 10% stake in Communicata. This is of great interest to me and is fundamental to developing a concept of what our LONE shares are worth, and thus of how to deploy capital in order to exploit our knowledge of Communicata's birth as a publicly traded company.

To: Mr. Jens Tingleff who wrote (1784)	3/16/2000 5:59:00 PM
From: Puck	Respond to of 1834

Here's an excerpt from an article that's about a year old about British internet companies that trade on U.S. exchanges. Look what happened to SCOP, as well as LDP. Some overlooked Internet companies: London Pacific Guess what? Some of these London Internet stocks trade in the United States. Scoot.com Plc (SCOP: news, msgs) provides information to British businesspeople. Scoot's stock has quadrupled since its IPO on Nasdaq. Other companies, like tiny Futuremedia PLC (FMDAY: news, msgs), have been virtually ignored. Futuremedia is in a hot field, integrated learning Web sites with names like www.easycando.com. Yet the stock on Nasdaq sells for pennies. One up-and-comer, London Pacific Group (LDP: news, msgs), is headquartered in the Jersey Channel Islands for tax reasons. London Pacific stock (see chart) trades in London and as an American depositary receipt in New York. But the company handles most of its operations from California. London Pacific is an insurer with venture investments in American Internet companies like Net Perceptions (NETP: news, msgs), Ramp Networks (RAMP: news, msgs) and DoubleClick purchase Net Gravity (NETG: news, msgs). (A Bear Stearns analyst says London Pacific could become the next Internet Capital Group (ICGE: news, msgs), a company that is a huge venture-capital success story in the United States. A top executive, Ian Whitehead in the company's Sacramento, Calif., office, was an adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.) "The firm may be on the verge of breaking out valuationwise," special situation analysts Craig Peckham and Peter Barry at Bear Stearns said in a report. Three of London Pacific's investments this year were sold to Cisco Systems (CSCO: news, msgs) for stock. The analysts estimate the company's venture-capital stakes in public companies is worth about $15 a share. The company doesn't comment on upcoming IPOs of its stakes, but message boards in London, including one at www.hemscott.co.uk, say one of London Pacific's significant holdings is U.S. software company Extensity, which is expected to fetch a stock-market valuation of as much as $1 billion on Nasdaq. Before the U.S. stock market opened Monday, Futuresource Media shares were at 3/4. London Pacific shares were at 28. Shares of both rose sharply Monday afternoon in the U.S. stock market. London Pacific rose as much as 14 points, or 50 percent, to 42 on the New York Stock Exchange, after this article was published. Futuresource shares rose 70 percent to 1 9/32.

To: Mr. Jens Tingleff who wrote (1784)	3/17/2000 5:33:00 PM
From: Puck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1834

Excerpt from an article; food for thought: Call It the Incubator Premium Yellowave (YWAV:OTC BB - news - boards), formerly a Los Angeles franchiser of hair salons (it'd be too difficult to make this stuff up), is sending emails to journalists to remind them that it's a technology company now. "Our future is as an incubator of high-tech companies, with initial investments in Israeli companies in wireless, telecommunications and fiber optics, as well as business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce." It's incubator magic! Yellowave's stock closed up 7/8 Thursday at 16 7/8, up from less than 3 in January. Its president is Israeli entrepreneur Ron Oren, who has shed the original hair-salon business and is now making tech investments in his homeland. Oren purchased Yellowave in August specifically to get its "shell" status as a public company and says he'll announce one or more exciting acquisitions next week. When an outfit goes public this way, there's the question of why -- if it has such a hot plan -- it could not tap into the still-generous capital markets with a conventional IPO. Sometimes these companies are winners: Shares of Sensar (SCII:Nasdaq - news - boards), the Israeli-owned shell that bought a technology company called Net2Wireless (and was profiled here in January), are up about 40% since the beginning of the year. On the other hand, don't forget Zapata (ZAP:NYSE - news - boards), the fishmeal company that caused a stir in the middle of 1998 -- and a huge, short-lived rise in its shares -- with its on-again/off-again Internet strategy. Zapata's shares bumped briefly over 20 at the time; they closed Thursday at 5 1/2. One other "Presto! We're-An-Incubator" story hasn't been working out so well. Ventro's (VNTR:Nasdaq - news - boards) shares rose from 120 to 243 1/2 when it ceased to be life-sciences-oriented Chemdex and instead became a "horizontal" B2B company. By Thursday, the shares had returned to 140 1/8.