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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DiB who wrote (59983)	12/9/2003 11:07:52 PM
From: Dealer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

Article Tonight mentioned 8X8......in not too good of a light.....I guess they expect the Big Bells to come into the game.....but they are late to the game...... Beware the VoIP hype The Internet phone biz is getting a lot of buzz and some small stocks are getting bid up too high. December 9, 2003: 2:20 PM EST By Paul R. La Monica, CNN/Money Senior Writer Sign up for the Tech Biz e-mail newsletter NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Looking at the biggest movers on the Nasdaq over the past few weeks, it's pretty clear that tech investors think they've found themselves the next big thing. It's voice over Internet protocol, the technology that enables making phone calls over the Internet. VoIP (pronounced as it sounds...i.e. rhyming with the way that a lifelong Brooklyn resident would pronounce "perp"), does have the potential to change the telecom industry. It's a more cost-effective way for carriers to offer voice services, which are rapidly becoming a commodity, and it allows telecoms to package voice and data over one line. But aren't investors getting just a tad excited about the prospects for VoIP? Dial S for speculation A tiny company called 8X8 (EGHT: up $1.22 to $5.76, Research, Estimates), which offers a VoIP phone service called Packet8, has been among the Nasdaq's most actively traded stocks for the past two weeks. Shares were up more than 20 percent on Tuesday and have surged nearly 70 percent in the two weeks since Nov. 21. 8X8 has a market value of about $170 million, is not profitable and had revenues of only $4 million in the first six months of its latest fiscal year. Can you say speculation? 8X8 is one of several stocks that have surged on VoIP buzz over the past month. Shares of a small firm called Z-Tel (ZTEL: down $0.02 to $2.07, Research, Estimates) are up 37 percent since Nov. 21. It has a VoIP service for home consumers and small businesses called Z-Line. Z-Tel isn't making money, either. deltathree (DDDC: down $0.10 to $2.85, Research, Estimates), an unprofitable company that offers a consumer VoIP service called iConnectHere, has soared 32 percent in the past two weeks. VocalTec (VOCL: up $0.68 to $5.10, Research, Estimates), which makes switches and other equipment for VoIP networks, has surged nearly 80 percent since Nov. 21. Profitable? What do you think? It lost $3.1 million in its latest quarter on $3.2 million in sales. VoIP pioneer Net2Phone (NTOP: Research, Estimates), which has been publicly traded since 1999, has enjoyed a nice pop lately, too, surging 33 percent in the past two weeks. Deja vu all over again Jeffrey Citron, chairman and CEO of privately held Vonage, which has about 80,000 VoIP subscribers, admits that investors need to be cautious in the sector but that VoIP is a legitimate growth business. "There is going to be a tremendous appetite for investing in the field of voice over IP from equipment manufacturers to service providers," said Citron.