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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Bid.com International (BIDS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MrsNose who wrote (17576)	4/8/1999 9:24:00 AM
From: PCKL	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 37507

Everyone, don't forget to go to Denise's site to answer her survey regarding bid.com's shareholders: Yank v. Canuck, date buying bid.com, etc. We've had quite a response alread. Denise, can you post that site again. Remember, DO NOT SELL TOO SOON!

To: MrsNose who wrote (17576)	4/8/1999 9:26:00 AM
From: waldo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 37507

From the Globe: Bid.Com Bid.Com, Versus stocks soar with U.S. on-line surge Investors catch Internet fever despite companies' tiny revenues Thursday, April 8, 1999 ANDREW BELL and MARK EVANS The Globe and Mail Internet fever infected Canadian investors yesterday, sending shares in on-line businesses to record highs despite the companies' tiny revenues and lack of profits. Trading volume in the two best-known Internet stocks, on-line auctioneer Bid.Com International Inc. and electronic discount stockbroker Versus Technologies Inc., climbed into the millions on the Toronto Stock Exchange as on-line brokerage stocks in the United States continue to surge. Versus was lifted by euphoria over Charles Schwab Corp., the biggest on-line broker in the United States, which jumped $8.75 (U.S.) to close at a record $116 on the New York Stock Exchange, said Duncan Stewart, Toronto-based manager of the $13-million (Canadian) Navigator Technology Fund. "It's a little bit of Schwab and a little bit of TD." Shares in Toronto-Dominion Bank rose $2.65 to end at a record $78.50 on the TSE. The bank's shares have jumped 46 per cent this year as investors lick their lips over the potential on-line value of U.S. discount broker Waterhouse Investor Services Inc., which has more than 1.5 million accounts. TD also owns Green Line Investor Services, Canada's biggest discount broker. Toronto-based Bid.Com, which operates an on-line auction house, soared $6.90 to end at $26.80, cracking the $1-billion market capitalization mark for the first time. Earlier, it hit a record $29.45. Mr. Stewart warned that investors are fooling themselves if they believe Bid.Com is worth more than $1-billion. "They had $6.4-million in sales in the fourth quarter and $6.3-million in the third quarter. They are not growing at a million miles a second." Some of the interest in Bid.Com follows the TSE's decision this week to include the company in the benchmark TSE 300 index -- a move Mr. Duncan said he finds puzzling as the exchange tries to regain credibility in the wake of the 1997 Bre-X Minerals Ltd. scandal. "I know it's in the TSE 300; it doesn't mean you have to buy it," he said. Among other Internet stocks, Toronto-based Cyberplex Inc., a consulting and design company, rose 53 cents to end at $4.55 after hitting a record $4.75 earlier in the day. Toronto-based Cryptologic Inc., which makes software used by on-line gambling sites, rose $3.40 to $26.40. Versus, the Canadian licencee of U.S. Internet broker ETrade Group Inc., has taken investors for a chilling ride since its initial public offering at $11.50 a share one month ago. The stock, which rose $4.90 to end at $19.40 yesterday, had sagged to $8.50 in late March. "You had a whole bunch of people churning the stock because they expected a quick flip," Mark Pavan, an analyst at Versus underwriter Yorkton Securities Inc., told Dow Jones. He started covering Versus last week with a forecast that the stock would hit $18.50 in a year. Versus has two arms: its small ETrade Canada unit with about 8,000 retail accounts at the end of last year, and its Versus computer network that lets big institutional investors trade shares. Retail is the company's growth engine, accounting for $1.1-million or 22 per cent of its revenue in the final three months of 1998, up from $397,000 or 12 per cent in the same period in 1997. Versus has less than 5 per cent of Canada's on-line investing market, which amounted to roughly 200,000 investors in 1998, or less than one investor in 20. That gives Versus plenty of room to grow, said E*Trade Canada president Colleen Moorhead. "It's upside for me." But the company faces vicious competition in taking on Canada's entrenched big banks, said Ken Clemmer, an analyst at technology consultant Forrester Research Inc. of Cambridge, Mass. "Canadian customers have these existing one-stop shops for their financial services." W