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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NYBellBoy who wrote (5222)	1/20/1999 4:44:00 PM
From: Anthony@Pacific	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 122087

SEC Shelves Shopping.com Shares (03/24/98, 5:08 p.m. ET) By Gabrielle Jonas, TechWeb The Securities and Exchange Commission has shelved trading of Shopping.com while it investigates charges of "manipulative conduct." Margaret H. McFarland, deputy secretary of the SEC, on Tuesday cited "recent market activity in the stock that may have been the result of manipulative conduct" for the trading halt. McFarland wrote in her order that "the public interest and the protection of investors require a suspension of trading." The halt of Shopping.com [IBUY], based in Corona Del Mar, Calif., took effect early Tuesday, and will be lifted one minute before midnight on April 6. The stock last traded at 22 1/4. The reopening could be ugly for Shopping.com, which dubs itself an "innovativeInternet-based electronic wholesaler/retailer -- wholetailer." Shopping.com, which had fourth quarter sales of about $400,000 and 61 full-time employees, announced its IPO in December at $9 a share and quickly rocketed to about $30 a share. Reports began to surface on MSNBC and other outlets earlier this month that shares of Shopping.com were being artificially propped up by Waldron & Co., the investment firm that underwrote the company's IPO. Recently, Key West Securities, based in Key West, Fla., initiated coverage with an immediate sell recommendation. "This is a story about pure greed: The company is irrelevant," said Anthony Elgindy, chief analyst at the firm. "The company has no sales revenue, nothing to speak of to justify their stock's $30 price tag." Elgindy said the company controlled all buying of shares, then manipulated its price and penalized shareholders who tried to sell. Last Wednesday, Chatfield Dean & Co., of Greenwood Village, Colo., reiterated its sell recommendation on Shopping.com, citing "rumors of short squeeze." In a short squeeze, the stock price of a company is propped up so investors who are betting on a dip lose out. Chatfield had initiated coverage March 11. But the analyst who wrote the report, Kelly Donges, hastened to explain that Chatfield Dean itself was not privy to the source of the rumors, and that it had already decided to recommend the shares as a sell before the rumors surfaced. "We were just making a recommendation based on the fundamentals," Donges said. "It was a good opportunity for investors to sell out on the stock at the current valuation of $24. But we haven't spoken with any of the parties, and as far as allegations of stuff going on, I can't really comment on that. "There were rumors of short squeeze. But we're not the SEC. Our comment was this might be a good time for people to get out." Chatfield revised its estimates for the company to a 12-to-18-month price target of $5 per share, and 1998 estimates of 96 cents a share. Shopping.com's attorney had not returned telephone calls. remember this one?