AHWY news at 10:03 on Yahoo, Casue for momentary upside move.
Friday March 19, 10:03 am Eastern Time
INTERVIEW- audiohighway.com sees clear roads
ahead
by Monica Summers
NEW YORK, March 19 (Reuters) - audiohighway.com (Nasdaq:AHWY - news) is hitching a
ride with some technology big boys by striking a range of deals that have sent it and its stock
price speeding along the Internet interstate.
The information and entertainment company, in its toddler year of being public, on Thursday
signed a deal with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news), linking its name with yet another
big-name company in the realms of Web services and electronic commerce.
Since January, the company has entered into six such agreements -- including deals with
Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE:BKS - news) and Bertelsmann AG affiliate affiliate
barnesandnoble.com (www.barnesandnoble.com) and Weather Underground (www.wunderground.com) earlier this month, to
share content from audiohighway.com's vast library of downloadable audio.
In the deal with Microsoft, audiohighway.com will provide audio content for the MSN network's Web Events
(www.webevents.msn.com), a Web portal where users can tune in to live audio and video broadcasts, as well as download audio
and video products.
Shares of audiohighway.com almost doubled on news of the deal, jumping more than 60 percent and closing at $13.25 on Thursday
afternoon.
''I'm 49 years old and one thing I've learned is never anticipate stock movement. Sometimes you think things that might move the
stock don't, sometimes you think that it won't and it does,'' said President and Chief Executive Nathan Schulhof, adding that though
he's happy about the increased share price, he still feels the stock is undervalued.
''I think our revenue plan and our uniqueness will become very clear in the near future, to analysts and consumers alike, where we
bring an added value proposition to the Web,'' he said.
Surfers who visit the company Web site (www.audiohighway.com) will find a wide variety of free downloadable and live
streaming audio, including radio events, news, music and comedy that can be listened to via MP3, Microsoft's Media Player or
audiohighway.com's proprietary AudioWiz software. The site also lets e-shoppers do their business at the AudioShop, which sells
a small, but growing, range of products such as PalmPilots, digital cameras and other multimedia gear.
''Really what it all is is a one-stop shop for audio, and we want users to be able to come to the audiohighway.com site and find the
largest selection of aggregated audio content,'' Schulhof said, adding that the company will strive to keep a large portion of its
content free to users.
''Whether you like music or audio books, or you're looking for the latest news or ski reports, or you missed your favorite radio or
TV show, we'd like to make it available to you on our site.''
audiohighway.com was one of the last Internet companies to ride the IPO wave in 1998, following such companies as eBay Inc.
(Nasdaq:EBAY - news), InfoSpace.com Inc. (Nasdaq:INSP - news), Xoom.com Inc. (Nasdaq:XMCM - news), AboveNet
Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:ABOV - news) and Internet America Inc. (Nasdaq:GEEK - news).The company filed its 2.2
million share IPO in November with an original $15 to $16 pricing range but priced on Dec. 16 at $6.50 per share.
Unlike Internet companies such as eBay and Geocities Inc.(Nasdaq:GCTY - news), whose shares soared just days after going
public, audiohighway.com saw very moderate changes in its stock price. After pricing at $6.50, shares jumped to a high of $16.50
and just recently settled back down to almost $9.
In early March, audiohighway.com raised $12 million by redeeming its common stock purchase warrants and also added 1.2
million shares to its shares outstanding.
As a result, shares that were trading at upward of $9.00 dropped to just above $7.00.
''We anticipated that the stock might drop when we added additional shares, but we felt that the opportunity to give the company
its new equity would put the company in a very strong position for future growth and success.''
Schulhof said he is happy with the company's growth rate and anticipates that the company will achieve profitability ''earlier than
most Internet companies'' mainly due to deals like the Microsoft agreement. He said several deals will come to fruition in the near
future.
''This is a company that doesn't really focus on the stock price,'' he said. ''We communicate to the Street on a regular basis, but
we focus on running a company and meeting goals. We believe that, in the long run, by meeting our goals and delivering revenues,
the stock price will take care of itself.''
More Quotes
and News:
AboveNet Communications Inc (Nasdaq:ABOV - news)
AUDIOHIGHWAY (Nasdaq:AHWY - news)
Barnes & Noble Inc (NYSE:BKS - news)
eBay Inc (Nasdaq:EBAY - news)
GeoCities (Nasdaq:GCTY - news)
InfoSpace.com Inc (Nasdaq:INSP - news)
Internet America Inc (Nasdaq:GEEK - news)
Microsoft Corp (Nasdaq:MSFT - news)
XOOM.com Inc (Nasdaq:XMCM - news)
Related News Categories: US Market News
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