Hey all:
It's actually sort of humorous. YHOO gets slapped into the nasdaq 100 and announces (a non-news) expansion o its book selling relationship with amzn and amzn gains more than YHOO.
1. How many English language book buyers are there in New Zealand (hint the sheep dramatically outnumber the ~4 million people), Korea, and Japan (I always assumed that North American book market was sized to include our great Canadian neighbor to the north).
2. Everen Securities and Needham and Co.
v.
Merrill Lynch (most Insititutional Investor all star research analysts)
You make the call.
3. I guess I'm surprised how most of the amzn news has been about books. Only books. Not even music or videos, let alone as a shop bot. It would seem that YHOO et al can make much more money charging high prices to music, video and cd sellers seperately than it can bundling all the space for amzn (and/or it will eventually dawn on yhoo that i'll just use its shop bot to cruise ALL the book shops and just send me the cheapest thing).
4, Oh, I see, amzn must be getting paid by YHOO rather than vice versa and that's why the stock cruised up.
5. INTC, MSFT and real companies with products, barriers to entry and profits barely move, Dow does a quick rally and gives up all the gains, internet stocks have a good day. You think , just maybe, a suckers' rally?
Later --
LP
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Internet stocks hung tough Wednesday, but few analysts or portfolio managers were convinced they're out of the woods. Among the winners:
ÿ<Picture: sq_bullet2.gif (60 bytes)> Amazon.com (AMZN) and Yahoo (YHOO), which announced an expanded marketing relationship (more below);
<Picture: sq_bullet2.gif (60 bytes)>America Online (AOL), which was raised to "strong buy" from "buy" at Hambrecht & Quist and announced a $12 million, three-year contract with eBayÿ
<Picture: sq_bullet2.gif (60 bytes)>Netscape (NSCP), which gained 7.1 percent after announcing strong membership growth at its Netcenter portal site (more below); and
ÿ <Picture: sq_bullet2.gif (60 bytes)> RealNetworks (RNWK), Excite (XCIT), Earthlink (ELNK) and MindSpring (MSPG), which all benefited from bullish analyst comments.
Lawrence York, lead portfolio manager of the $2.6 million WWW Internet Fund, said Internet stocks, many of which lost half their value or more in August, remain overvalued by and large and are susceptible to renewed weakness in the broader market. "We haven't solved any problems in Asia and Russia. The questions are still out there, and these stocks are not safe havens in a market like this," said York.
Netscape boasts about Netcenter
Netscape announced that membership at its Netcenter portal site stands at more than 7 million after adding 750,000 new members in August. The company also said that more than 12.4 million copies of its Netscape Communicator and Navigator browser software have been downloaded from Netcenter since July.
USWeb, CKS Group plan stock swap
Shares of USWeb fell 15 percent after the Web development consultant announced plans to buy the online marketing agency CKS Group in a stock swap valued at about $302.9 million at Wednesday closing prices. The combined company, to be called Reinvent Communications, will be headed by USWeb's (USWB) Joe Firmage as chief executive and CKS Group's (CKSG) Mark Kvamme as chairman. "The world is moving towards a point where a company's chief information officer and chief marketing officer must speak the same language," said Toby Corey, president and chief operating officer of USWeb.
According to the terms of the deal, each share of CKS Group will be exchanged for 1.5 shares of USWeb, which initially valued CKS Group shares at about $21.65, a premium of about 53 percent. The merger, which will be accounted for as a pooling of interests, is expected to close by the end of the year, subject to approval by both companies' shareholders. On the news, USWeb fell 2 1/8 to 12 5/16, while CKS Group rose 1 1/8 to 15 1/4, altering the value of the deal. See full story.
Amazon.com tags along with Yahoo!
Yahoo! and online retailer Amazon.com -- arguably the two best-known brands on the Internet -- are getting together to go global. According to their agreement, which expands on an earlier pact between the two companies, Amazon.com (AMZN) will be featured as the premier global bookseller on many of Yahoo!'s (YHOO) sites around the world, including sites in Japan, Korea, Canada and New Zealand. No financial deals of the pact were announced.
Meanwhile, Yahoo! and Amazon also benefited from other news Wednesday. The Nasdaq Stock Market announced Yahoo! will be added to its Nasdaq 100 index. The Internet portal company will replace MCI Communications, which is merging with WorldCom. No date for the change was announced. Amazon got a boost from Needham & Co., which increased the stock's rating to "buy" from "hold." On Tuesday, a Merrill Lynch analyst initiated coverage of Amazon at "short-term reduce" because of the company's excessive valuation, but Everen Securities analyst Tony Blenk upped his rating on the company to "outperform" from "underperform."
What beautiful clothes the Net is wearing
Books, software, music, plane tickets ... and now clothes. More than 10 percent of active Internet users have browsed for clothes on the Web in the past six months, a 67 percent increase from the previous six-month period, according to a report by Reuters. And these users aren't just Windows shopping, either: Nearly half of the browsers made an apparel purchase, the article reported, citing data from Web marketer @Plan. "The upcoming holiday season could be when this trend starts to show it could become a big business," @Plan chief Mark Wright told the news service.
Deal of the Day: InfoUSA and Network Solutions link up
Omaha, Neb.-based InfoUSA Inc. has announced a linking agreement with Network Solutions, which handles the registration process for most Web addresses. Under the agreement, InfoUSA (IUSAA), formerly named American Business Information, will offer links to Network Solutions (NSOL) domain-name registration, while Network Solutions customers will be able to link to InfoUSA's databases and purchase business credit reports, sales leads and mailing lists.ÿ |
