April 30, 1999
StockHouse News Desk
Amanda Peters
Hey, Joe Kernen: Stop Making Fun of Mpath on CNBC-TV. Their Website Gets 200 Million User Minutes Monthly And Is Among The Most Addictive on the Internet.
Miami, FL, April 30 /SHfn/ -- Hey Joe, I'm one of about 50,000 daily visitors to the Mpath website (www.mpath.com) and I'm not a guy. I don't even visit iVillage, but I do spend a lot of time on the Mpath website - about the same as most. The average time that users have fun on this site is over 100 minutes per day. I confess I've probably spent more time than that the past 2 weeks, with the nasty IPO drought we just had. I had this thing for eToys, but "oh well," I'll have to settle for how good I think Mpath is. First, they have 2.6 million registered users, which is pretty good and many of these IPOs would settle for much less than that.
So Joe, did you notice that Intel owns about 1 million shares of Mpath? Why would they buy into 6% of this company, unless they planned to do something with them, down the road. Just a guess, but did you notice that Intel made an announcement, last week, about wanting to become more Internet-involved? Hmmm.
And Joe, did you look at the resumes of those hunks on the management team? They're not kids, like us. The youngest one is 33 and the Chief Technology Officer - the guy who actually designs these games. He's designed over 100 popular online games. The rest are way too old - in their 40s or 50s. I liked the degrees the execs have - MBAs, physics, biochemistry, electrical engineering, economics, and stuff like that. Look at their educational backgrounds - no slouches, these guys: Harvard, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Georgetown, Wharton School of Business, and CalTech. A little ivy in their diplomas? But where did they come from? Hewlett Packard, Texas Instruments, Walt Disney, TCI, Apple, and Quantum, etc. One of the guys founded Broderbund Software. One of the women was managing director of Alex Brown.
Now Joe, Mpath also has a good team of underwriters, led by BancBoston Robertson Stephens. You know, at some point, they'll come out with a nifty buy rating on this stock. Did you notice that Thomas Wiesel Partners LLC is also involved? They seem to stick to the better quality IPOs, like Rhythms Netconnections. You'll see them again when TheStreet.com goes public. What about Warburg Dillon Read LLC? I just noticed that Abovenet Communications hit $151 a few weeks ago. Absolutely brilliant.
Joe, look at Mpath's customers. The Mpath Foundation business unit makes most of the jingle for the company's cash register. CSK Sega, Eidos Interactive, Electronic Arts, Fujitsu, GTECH, LG Internet, Macromedia and Sony use their POP-X technology system. They're trying to create online communities and Mpath is helping them. I also like their HearMe.com business, where - maybe Joe - someday we might meet, if you're a good boy. Now that the word is out on Mplayer.com, user minutes have tripled since last year and it's the number 11 most used website for the total amount of time spent there. Imagine, more than 200 million minutes are spent on that website, each month. Advertisers are bound to notice that. When they hop aboard, more jingle in the cash register. You know how much time people spend playing games on their computer. Mpath has something like 100 games to choose from. So, Joe, are you going to play Total Annihilation or not?
I guess you didn't notice Mpath's corporate partners, huh Joe? They've got Excite, Infoseek, Intel, Yahoo!, GTECH, Sega, XOOM.com, and Cox. How's that for brand recognition, marketing clout and techno-energy sitting at the Mpath table?
As for the $62 million they raised yesterday, at least they didn't use it to pay down debt, Joe, like some of those other oinks that IPO'ed earlier this month. It looks like that money is going to actually expand Mpath's business. Now, how's that for a change in the Internet IPO climate? I wonder if the underwriters are going to snap up the over-allotment. That would be something, eh?
So, Joe, let me get serious for a moment. Mpath traded 8.6 million shares and jumped by 181% on opening day. The pricing kept going higher because institutions were buying up the IPO, instead of laughing and joking like you. Those (hmm, I wonder who?) who dismissed Mpath as a Web community for men - trying to ride the coat tails of the iVillage concept weren't laughing when they realized they should have jumped aboard this soul train. It's been around since 1995 and last year revenues jumped by 194%. Yes, Joe, it lost money, but so did Amazon.com. But, most of Mpath's operating income was sucked away by its sales and marketing team. You know, Joe, capturing territory is what it's all about, for Internet stocks, because today's pioneer wilderness is cyberspace - remember how wealthy San Franciscans got from those goldrushes and the railroad boom? Today, their progeny are making it in cyberspace. Spend the money, gain the ground.
Oh yes, Joe. Of course, there is competition, present and future: Cendant (David Faber's favorite), E-Pub Services, Lipstream, SegaSoft, Sony, and, of course, Microsoft (a company who seems to be everyone's competition). But, despite them, Mpath chugs along, eating up those Internet user minutes and growing faster in that department than anyone else last year. Who knows, maybe Mpath will be more popular than iVillage, next year?
Yes, Joe, I like this one. Renaissance Capital made it their "Pick of the Week." InternetNews liked it a lot, too. After all, what once was static is now dynamic. The Internet, of course. Now, Joe, are you dynamic or are you a couch potato?
Joe, if you would just get a decent haircut and come up with a better tie selection, I might even give you my email address. By the way, I have a sweet British accent that I find American males swoon over. Say hello to David Faber for me. He's cute, but definitely NOT my type.
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Amanda Peters is the sexy IPO reporter for StockHouse.com, spending most of her day reading SEC Registrations, but only when she's not playing video games on Mpath or treasuring the wit of Joe Kernan on CNBC-TV. Amanda's goal in life is to stop studying IPOs and start buying them, before they open for trading. Unfortunately, StockHouse employees are prohibited from trading stocks, so Amanda might not be with us much longer. |
