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Technology Stocks : USAT Long Distance Telecommunications -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Murrey Walker who wrote (155)	1/29/1999 12:44:00 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 397

USA Talks.com Trading Halt Ordered by SEC for 2 Weeks Washington, Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading in the securities of USA Talks.com Inc. after the start-up Internet telephony company's shares almost quadrupled in less than a month, to a market value of $1.3 billion. The agency ordered the suspension because ''questions have been raised about the accuracy and adequacy of public information on USA Talks.com, according to an SEC release. These questions pertain in part to the status and extent of the company's business operations. The company plans to begin offering consumers unlimited long distance telephone service using ordinary telephones for between $20 and $60 a month next week, transmitting calls over the Internet. USA Talks.com President William Ervine, in an interview Wednesday, defended the company's stock market valuation. I'd put my mother into this stock, and have done so,'' he said. ''I think we're an excellent value for the investor.'' Ervine said he expects the company to earn $16 million this year on revenue of $85 million, with as many as 500,000 customers by year-end. Sales-to-date are about $230,000, representing $100 fees from its first 2,300 customers, he said. Based in La Jolla, California, USA Talks.com offers long distance telephone service. Company officials couldn't be reached immediately for comment. ''Anyone can come in and do the same thing relatively quickly,'' said Dan Briere, president of Telechoice Inc., a telecommunications consulting firm. ''It's not a technology issue, it's a sales and marketing issue.'' USA Talks.com's marketing unit ran into trouble last year. Trendmark Inc., a multi-level marketing company based in Memphis, is marketing the long distance service through its network of 15,000 distributors. So far, all USA's customers are Trendmark distributors who set up the service for their own use. On Sept. 14, USA agreed to purchase Trendmark for 2.75 million shares, worth $144 million yesterday. Nine days later, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission accused Trendmark of misleading consumers with false claims about its ''Thin-Thin'' diet program. The company settled by agreeing not to lie about the products in the future. ''We agreed not to do what we didn't do,'' said Robert Gates, chief executive of Trendmark. USA's Ervine, an attorney, said he wasn't aware of the FTC's action until after he signed the letter of intent to buy Trendmark. ''Any violation of any state or federal regulation is of very grave concern to us, and we will not tolerate it,'' said Ervine. Gates said USA was informed of the FTC's ongoing investigation. ''I told them about it early on,'' he said. USA's shares last traded at 52 1/4. The shares closed at 13 1/2 on Dec. 31, 1998, and traded as low as 2 1/2 on Oct. 14. USA is the largest customer of Franklin Telecommunications, which fell 3/4 to 2 5/8, on trading of 597,500 shares. USA has purchased $2.3 million of its Tempest Internet telephony gateways since last month, according to Franklin. The SEC trading suspension of USA Talks.com began today at 9:30 a.m. Washington time and will end on Feb. 11 at 11:59 p.m. 12:13:54 01/29/1999