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

To: Gee-Man who wrote (31859)	6/3/1999 11:44:00 AM
From: Magic RN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 37507

Gee-Man: Thanks for the flash! That is good news. Holding long and strong. Carole

To: Gee-Man who wrote (31859)	6/3/1999 12:01:00 PM
From: hx4	Respond to of 37507

Thanks Gee-Man. EOM Trade long and Profit Harry

To: Gee-Man who wrote (31859)	6/3/1999 12:35:00 PM
From: waldo	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 37507

Canadian Business Top 5 technology 100 June 11, 1999 3. Auction fever Bid.Com International Inc. Revenue: $20.1 million 12-month increase: 652.1% Bid.Com International Inc., Canada's leading online auctioneer, may be posting bigger and bigger revenues, but it's the company's share price that's getting all the attention-gyrating with the sudden unpredictability that only an Internet stock can muster. So what's with that? Jeff Lymburner, the company's president, is at a loss to explain. "The market works in strange and mysterious ways," he says. That's also a good summation of the Bid.Com saga to date, an Internet rags-to-riches-to-who-knows-where-it-will-wind-up kind of story. Originally called Internet Liquidators International Inc., the company listed on the TSE in February 1998 (BII) and on the Nasdaq exchange in April 1999 (BIDS). Driving the company is its patented Dutch auction process-in which consumers hold out for the lowest price possible on items as they descend incrementally over time. In May, the company upped the excitement level with the introduction of an online hosted auction streamed live out to users. Some 130,000 people turned out to bid on items ranging from consumer electronics to sports memorabilia. Adding to the good news were impressive-looking 1998 results, in which Bid.Com announced a 652% increase in revenue to $20.1 million from $2.7 million in 1997. Despite the one-way growth, the stock market has been far more fickle. Bid.Com's share price certainly has surged since it hit a low of 56¢ last fall. In early April, its TSE share price topped $30, then fell to as low as $8.50 two weeks later. Within days of that, however, the stock again exceeded $30. Most unnerving for the market was the controversial recommendation of Yorkton Securities Inc. analyst Mark Pavan, who downgraded the stock from a speculative buy to "underperform," suggesting that recent price gains had left the stock overvalued. Previously, Yorkton had underwritten Bid.Com's last three financings. None of the commotion over Bid.Com surprises Tom Koplyay, a professor of strategy in the University of Ottawa's executive MBA program. He says that the online market is all about posting spectacular results; that, in fact, it's expected as part of the bullish posturing of companies as they race to create market share. Koplyay says the key issue is to examine the stability of the revenue. "Can you hold it? Can you defend it?" What makes this doubly tricky in the case of Bid.Com is that its revenue figures reflect the value of all the goods sold through its site. By comparison, eBay Inc. of San JosÈ, Calif., the world's largest auction-style Internet company, reports its fees as revenue (US$47 million in 1998) rather than the value of merchandise sales (US$307 million in the fourth quarter of 1998 alone). Until the market solidifies, Koplyay says to expect more of the same, with companies making all the noise they can to attract consumers. He points to Victoria's Secret's online lingerie show this past February as an example. For one evening it attracted thousands of people, but Koplyay says you probably won't hear anything more about the company for another two years. Sound familiar? Bid.Com garnered the same attention with its first online streaming auction. "For Bid.Com, it could be a matter of months,'' Koplyay suggests. "This sort of enticement and enchantment lasts in the market and then you're abandoned." Lymburner says he has no intention of letting that happen to Bid.Com. Already, it is diversifying its revenue streams. The company has sold banner advertising to such companies as Chapters.com and CD Plus.com Inc.; this summer it will go after the overseas market with the launch of a European office in Dublin; and it's already started licensing its Dutch auction technology to other sites. Lymburner says the company also plans to pursue more business-to-business auctions; and has gone from flogging electronics online to jewellery, rare books and other off-beat items. "The stock market follows its own dynamic," he says. "I'm devoting myself to running the business and hope the market will respond." -Charles Mandel canadianbusiness.com W