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Strategies & Market Trends : Trading with Jerry Olson(OJ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: 2MAR$ who wrote (1468)	3/14/2004 12:05:28 PM
From: anon.10	Respond to of 1617

2mars, im long sndk too??? lt

To: 2MAR$ who wrote (1468)	3/15/2004 8:58:24 PM
From: 2MAR$	Respond to of 1617

NetEase may face SEC penalty for hyping sales...falls -5pts Monday March 15, 5:18 pm ET By Eric Auchard (Recasts, adds context on prior accounting restatement, analyst comment, stock fall, byline) NEW YORK, March 15 (Reuters) - NetEase.com Inc. (NasdaqNM:NTES - News), the pioneer of free e-mail service in China, said on Monday that U.S. regulators may seek civil penalties from the company for overstating revenues by 50 percent during 2000, its first year as a Nasdaq company. NetEase, a Beijing-based company that is now one of China's top three Internet media players, said in a statement that U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (News - Websites) staff had recommended the SEC bring a civil lawsuit seeking unspecified penalties tied to its restatement. Shares of NetEase, which in the past 18 months has been one of the top performing stocks on Nasdaq, tumbled 12 percent on Monday after the company disclosed the SEC's proposed penalty. However, in its statement, the company sought to draw a line between its current management and operations and prior management at the time of NetEase's listing of American Depositary Shares on the Nasdaq in early 2000. The handful of financial analysts who track NetEase said the company had made strides to put its past behind it. "My impression is that this was a historical problem," said Chang-hua Qiu, an analyst with Forun Technologies in Princeton, New Jersey. "The accounting under the new management is very conservative," Qiu said in a phone interview while traveling in Guangzhou, China. Qiu has tracked the company through its early years as a public company but only began rating the stock a buy in 2002, well after it had replaced the company's founding entrepreneurs with new managers who had international financial experience. EARLY HYPE, LATER HOT STOCK In 2001, the company revealed that it had overstated its 2000 year revenues by more than 50 percent. It later restated revenue results for 2000 down to $3.7 million from the $7.9 million it previously reported. Shares of NetEase were halted for trading on Nasdaq for four months during 2001 while the company investigated financial improprieties and restated its results. A subsequent lawsuit filed by U.S. shareholder attorneys against NetEase and its Wall Street underwriters won a class settlement of $4.3 million for investors who had bought 4.5 million shares in 2000 and 2001, according to legal papers. The Beijing-based company said the SEC staff intends to recommend the SEC bring a civil injunctive action against the company for alleged violations of the federal securities laws. The company had previously disclosed it was under investigation by the SEC over the restatement. NetEase said it still has an opportunity to respond to the SEC before it makes a formal recommendation on penalties. It added that it is cooperating fully with the probe. NetEase was founded in June 1997. It developed China's first free e-mail service and were the pioneers of mainland China-based Internet portals, online communities and auctions before holding its initial public offering in mid-year 2000. NetEase stock fell as low as $44.27 before recovering to end the day at $45.38, down $5.12, or 10 percent. It hit a record level of $72 last October.