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Technology Stocks : InfoSpace (INSP): Where GNET went! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carolyn who wrote (5880)	5/20/1999 4:16:00 PM
From: Technologyguy	Respond to of 28311

Great reference to GNET in this Marketwatch article: Think twice before trashing Net IPOs Small firms easy to ignore, but one may be next go2net By Darren Chervitz, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 7:49 PM ET May 19, 1999 SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- The easiest thing to do in the world is trash an Internet company trying to go public. Go on, try it. Take one of these innocent Web IPO hopefuls -- nearly any one will do. Then begin by moaning loudly about said company's growing losses (for added effect, toss in the fact that the company spent more on sales and marketing in the last quarter than it generated in sales for the entire year). Bring up all those big, bad competitors that are out to destroy our little company (or at least bring gross margins down to basically zero). And please don't forget to chew your fingernails and fret about how quickly the company's target market is changing. New technologies, new products, new competitors. "This company may not even be around in a year!!" scream to all those around you who are not too busy logging on to E-Trade to buy 100 more shares of Amazon.com. I think I spent so much time nit-picking, I missed the big picture. See, it's easy. Kind of fun, even. I should know. I've done my fair share of Internet-stock bashing since I started reviewing IPO registrants nearly three years ago. In a few cases, Wall Street's backed me up (Preview Travel, CDnow, NetGravity); in some others, I'm still convinced investors are mistaking stock success for actual success or at least have taken their exuberance too far (RealNetworks, Amazon.com). But in many instances, I think I spent so much time nit-picking that I missed the big picture. Red flag There is no better example of this than go2net (GNET: news, msgs), the little portal that could. With a few well-designed but rather dull sites to its credit, this Seattle company went public in 1997 at $8 a share in a little unassuming IPO headed by unknown lead underwriter Maxwell Capital. If there's anything that raises an automatic red flag about an IPO, it's seeing the name of a no-name bank on the front cover of a prospectus. If this is a big deal, why aren't one of the big guys (Goldman, H&Q, Lehman, etc.) underwriting it? The answer must be that management is not smart or connected, the product not worthwhile, the opportunity not large enough. And as a stock, forget it. Without legitimate, big-name analyst support, it's not going anywhere. Well I was wrong. Using luck and smarts, go2net assembled an intriguing portfolio of Web sites that even attracted the interest of Paul Allen, whose Vulcan Ventures agreed to buy a controlling stake in the company. And the stock's performance speaks for itself, rising 29,500 percent since the IPO. Go2net on my mind I couldn't get go2net out of my mind recently as I looked at 3Dshopping.com (DDDS: news, msgs) and Quepasa.com (PASA: news, msgs), two little Web players hoping to raise a little money and list on Nasdaq later this year.

To: Carolyn who wrote (5880)	5/20/1999 4:26:00 PM
From: Cleo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28311

Well ... I thought we were finally out of the woods today until the last hour when everything tanked ... especially internets. I do hope this is option expiration related. Regarding Board members, it is common for people to be Board members on several different companies. I don't think it is common to be on Boards of companies which are direct competitors. As far as the conflict of interest question you raised on GNET Board members, I don't know. Perhaps someone else out there can answer it better.