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Technology Stocks : eBay - Superb Internet Business Model -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CPUSA Inc. who wrote (746)	11/10/1998 10:01:00 PM
From: Secret_Agent_Man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7772

{OT}EARTHWEB-from briefing-12:18 ET Internet IPO: The initial public offering of EarthWeb Inc (EWBX), a provider of online services to IT professionals, is scheduled to price tomorrow. It is difficult to find anything compelling about this deal other than it's category -- Internet. As you should know by now, "fundamentals" are usually not taken into consideration by daytraders. And they are the ones who will make the market for this stock. See Story Stocks for details. EARTHWEB INC (EWBX): More sewage flowing from the IPO pipeline. The initial public offering of this New York-based provider of online services to IT professionals is expected to price tomorrow. Lead underwriter J.P. Morgan has indicated an initial range of $12 to $14 per share. So why would any institution choke down a few hundred thousand shares of this low-grade offering? Momentum my friend, momentum. It only takes one press release for investors to double their money, a la K-tel International (KTEL 19 13/16 +8 1/4), +72%; (not quite double, but you get our point). Moreover, no matter how poor the business, momentum players will eventually pick the stock up on their radar screen and run it up. Take Crown Books for example. This stock more than tripled in one week amid speculation the struggling brick-and-mortar book retailer would announce plans to launch a Web site. A few days later, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. So what exactly does EarthWeb do? The company's flagship service, developer.com, features a collection of online resources, including the full text of more than 150 technical books, over 300 exclusive technical articles, over 375 proprietary tutorials, and access to over 150,000 technical resources. EarthWeb derives substantially all of its revenues from the sale of advertisements on its online services, but has recently launched ITknowledge.com, a new subscription-based online service offering premium content for IT professionals. While the company's model is certainly not unique or compelling, the already poor fundamentals are diluted further by the crowded nature of this space. The competition includes sites run by major players: Ziff-Davis (InternetUser.com), CNET (builder.com and activex.com), CMP (TechWeb.com), Mecklermedia (webdeveloper.com), Wired Digital (Webmonkey.com) and IDG (Javaworld.com). Shares Outstanding/Market Cap: 7.9 mln/$95-$111 mln Revenues (First 9-months): 1997= $0.79 mln; 1998= $1.92 mln Losses (First 9-months): 1997= $(1.31); 1998= $(1.72) Price To Sales Ratio (Trailing 12-months): 42-49 (based on $12-$14 offer range) 10:45 ET ******