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Microcap & Penny Stocks : HouseHoldDirect.com (BYIT)-The Next SAMS/Walmart Ecommerce -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Andrew H who wrote (1055)	2/15/1999 9:09:00 PM
From: Jeffrey L. Henken	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2994

How hot is E Commerce? How important is a small float? Does a company with the desire to use e commerce even need to be profitable? Does it have to have a sound business plan to really fly? No but in the long run it will make a real difference. VerticalNet Shares Surge by Chris Stamper wired.com:80/news/news/business/story/17882.html 2:20 p.m. 11.Feb.99.PST VerticalNet -- which runs niche business sites like Food Online, Pollution Online, and PropertyandCasualty.com -- had a huge initial public offering on Thursday amid continued demand for Internet companies, even money-losing ones. VerticalNet runs 33 sites that offer trade news, job listings, classified ads, and purchasing clearinghouses. The sites cater to industries like oil and gas, bakeries, and sewage-treatment plants. Basically, it's a trade-magazine publisher. It gets 95 percent of its revenue from advertising and had a loss of US$5.79 million in 1997. But because it publishes online and is exploring ways of making money from e-commerce, investors piled into the stock. The company's shares were priced at US$16 Wednesday. Shortly after the stock (VERT) debuted Thursday, the shares jumped to as high as $55.44. In late trading, the stock was at $47.75. VerticalNet sold 3.5 million shares and raised $56 million from the offering, underwritten by Lehman Brothers and Hambrecht & Quist. Richard Peterson, an analyst at Securities Data, said VerticalNet's success is partially based on a resurgence of Internet IPO mania. "The irrational exuberance is back," he said. "The sky's the limit." Another reason for the huge price jump is that a limited number of shares were available. "There are only 3.5 million shares being traded. It makes for a very volatile stew." VerticalNet has partnerships with AltaVista, Excite, Deja News, and Yahoo. Last September, it purchased RF Globalnet, a site targeted at radio and microwave engineers. Venture capitalists who invested in VerticalNet included Koch Ventures, Internet Capital Group Wheatley Partners, and Enertech Capital Partners. The company's president and CEO is Mark Walsh, a former senior vice president at America Online and former president of the GEnie online service.