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Technology Stocks : VerticalNet, Inc. [VERT] -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: james-rockford who wrote (957)	9/12/2000 9:53:48 PM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 1094

Spring Forward, Fall Back at Ariba Toronto, ONT, September 13 /SHfn/ -- Ariba's [ARBA] share price appears to be rolling over and heading south. It hit a high of $183.34 on March 8, then declined with the rest of the market in mid-April. Since then it has staged a spectacular recovery. The rally, however, has been unable to match the previous high. While still within a positive, upward-trending channel, its rate of ascent has slowed dramatically. Any break below $140 signifies a trend change, and a possible decline of 26% from there. One major brokerage also finds Ariba overvalued at its current price. Ariba closed at $148 on Tuesday. Technically, Ariba appears to be having trouble moving above the down-trending price line drawn from the recent September high to Tuesday's intraday high of $159.75. The stochastic indicator shows that the stock is in a position to rally, as it has sold off from an extremely overbought condition and is in neutral territory. However, the stock price's failure to move above the negative trend line could signal a retreat to $140. Over the next six months, it could continue lower to $103. Ariba provides Internet-based, business-to-business (B2B) software for electronic commerce. The company announced that third-quarter sales more than doubled from the previous year to $81 million. For the nine months ending June 30, revenue totaled $144.2 million, up from $28.2 million. However, the company hasn't posted a profit since it went public in June 1999. Ariba's net loss totaled $453.4 million, up from $19.4 million a year earlier. It registers a loss of $2.29 a share on trailing twelve-month earnings. Salomon Smith Barney analyst Gretchen Teagarden doesn't expect the company to report a profit for another four quarters. She rates Ariba as a "neutral," and expects its share price to fall more than 8%, to about $145. Companies are rushing to develop Web exchanges to boost sales, cut the cost of processing orders or buy from thousands of distributors. Ariba anticipates capturing a third of that market. Although Teagarden is bullish about the company's prospects, she doesn't believe that Ariba's market segment is as "lucrative as the area of inputs that go right to making a company's products, for instance navigation electronics for an airplane manufacturer, or tires for an automaker." Teagarden continued, "We expect Ariba to have $4 billion in sales in 10 years. Even accepting as reasonable a stock valuation of 85 times earnings at that time, that justifies a $145 price today." And projecting out ten years, when the B2B industry is mature, 85 times earnings as an assumption seems richly valued. Investors need to assess the merits of Ariba. When an analyst needs to go 10 years into the future to justify Ariba's current share price, perhaps valuation questions are valid.

To: james-rockford who wrote (957)	9/13/2000 6:54:15 AM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1094

VerticalNet Says It Has No Interest in Ventro By Joe Bousquin Staff Reporter 9/12/00 9:29 PM ET On a day when the rumors about J.P. Morgan (JPM:NYSE - news) being acquired were all but confirmed, another talked about deal was dismissed by one of the main purported participants. VerticalNet (VERT:Nasdaq - news), the Horsham, Pa.-based company that runs Internet communities for industry professionals, said Tuesday evening that it's not in talks to buy Ventro (VNTR:Nasdaq - news), which runs online exchanges in the life-sciences and health industries. The announcement came after days of speculation about a deal, which pushed up Ventro's stock and of course pushed down VerticalNet's. (TSC wrote about the speculation last week.) VerticalNet "is not, and has not been, in any discussions with Ventro Corporation regarding a possible merger or other business combination," the company said in a statement. It also said it would continue to maintain its "a policy of not commenting on rumors of any kind," which seemed a bit contradictory given the subject of its release. The company said it was making the statement because "in recent days there have been media reports and repeated requests to the company for information as to whether such discussions were taking place." The rumors were fueled in part by the fact that Ventro canceled a planned day for analysts and a presentation at the Robertson Stephens Internet Conference, both which raised questions about whether the company was up to something. In addition, there was a Sept. 8 tongue-in-cheek article about possible B2B mergers penned by columnist Adam Feuerstein on Upside.com. "While we're on the subject of merger rumors, let's end with a whopper and chat about Ventro," Feuerstein wrote. "Hell, why not make a prediction (or a suggestion): Ventro is going to merge with VerticalNet."