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Technology Stocks : HCOM - HomeCom Communications < Short Term Gain? > -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Veiko Herne who wrote (229)	8/14/2000 5:45:28 PM
From: Toby Zidle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 232

Veiko, I never raised the question of whether this is spam or not. The important question is whether it's independent and objective analysis. It is not! It is openly an advertisement paid for by Homecom (so stated on RealStocks.com's web site). Further, the publisher profits from his biased presentation and says their "positions may be liquidated from time to time even after we have made positive comments regarding the Company." How obvious does it have to be that this is 'pump and dump'. The disclosure, by the way, is mandated by the SEC. Without it, it would be an illegal promotion. And is there false information? Nothing that I can say is a lie. But several things I'd say are misleading. What about, "First Quarter 2000 report showed a 163% increase in revenue vs. First Quarter 1999"? FIMI is in both of these figures, but is not part of any future growth of HCOM. Revenue must decrease without FIMI's contribution. Reference to "25 Most Interesting Companies of 1998" is inappropriate. The restructured HCOM after selling FIMI is not the HCOM of 1998, and a purchase should not have been recommended on this basis. The client list includes several insurance companies. They disappear when InsureRate disappears. Their inclusion here is inappropriate. Is the Value Line Special Situations rating still valid, or is it rehashed from last year or earlier? In the regular editions, Value Line suspends its ratings whenever a merger or split-off is in the works. Finally, how can RealStocks.com make ANY price projection, let alone a quadrupling of price, without benefit of any financial analysis whatsoever (see disclaimer)? My conclusion is that this is a pump-and-dump operation in which the promoters will sell at a profit the shares they've received from HCOM while the gullible get taken in at high prices and ultimately will lose money. [My disclaimer: The problems I raise with the RealStocks.com promotion were first stated on Yahoo's HCOM board by another poster. I did not originate them. I have merely restated them.]