> > An interesting story since we used to do a lot of work for GeoCities before
> > our art director friend bailed for a less insane job. I noticed just the
> Started at $17 on IPO Tuesday.
> Was at $45 Thursday morning when the news hit.
> Closed at $40.25 or so.
>
> The thing that amazes me is that it didn't go lower. If you think about
> it, Geocities already has no real income. And it would appear they
> didn't get what money they do have entirely from ads . . .
Kind of makes me think of the time the English were trying to sell ice
skates and other such things to folks in South America, shortly after the
place was discovered. No logic, plenty of business, and a big economic
bust! Sir Isaac Newton was said to have lost a small fortune on that
himself... He called it stupid from the start, but after watching it go
up and up and up for a few years, decided he was wrong, and invested in it
himself. See "Manias, Panics, and Crashes", a very good book on the
economics of fads, and their aftermaths. Of course, we had the same
problem with out foreign loans some time back...
> So if one assumes a chunk of the income they do have, and are
> outrageously overvalued on (I mean, really now, would anyone on this
> list, even in their wildest dreams, put a $1.1 billion price tag on what
> GeoCities has?), came from selling this data, and that said income is
> now gone, their valuation should have taken a much bigger hit. Given
You don't have to have the intelligence of Sir Isaac to see that!
> also the fact that their new business is gonna shrivel for awhile, and
> that people currently there will be leaving due to this, and we have a
> stock held by 2 million people who know nothing and are apparently
> desperate to get any Internet IPO action :P
Yes.
> Maybe this will be the first major IPO that burns enough investors in
> the end to chill the fever a bit.
Let us hope it does, so that even larger disasters do NOT happen!
Because sooner or later reality will have its way, and the larger the
swing beyond reason in one direction, the larger the swing beyond reason
in the opposite direction. As the pendulum swings towards trying new
things, we improve the lot of humanity, even if we err. As it swings
towards doing nothing, our advances decay, and we lose faith in our innate
abilities.
> Also makes me wonder if the decision to sell data came from the need for
> cash to survive through IPO. Personal data is a hell of a lot more
> valuable on today's market than ad revenues . . . wonder how many other
> borderline profitable operations are taking the same route behind the
> scenes?
As I hear it, MS's notices on its sites state that it has the right to
do so as well. One wonders what might be learned by statistical
monitoring of communications passing through their internet services...
and at what point "categories of interest" become clear invasion. That
kind of data can fetch a LOT of money if sold to the right people.
Maybe I am more paranoid than most, having heard many tales of what
went on in Europe during WW-II and in the cold war; but I could well
imagine financial institutions and insurance companies contacting an
information broker to see if someone has shown unusual interest in cancer,
caskets, etc. before loans and life insurance policies are approved. And
who might know that best, but someone doing statistical monitoring of
keywords passing through your internet connection. After all, insurance
and finance companies DO take serious interest in the neighborhoods you
live in, so why not the neighborhoods you cruise in?
[EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------- Every mouse click, a Vote ---------------
------ Do they vote For, or Against your pages? -------
-------------------------------------------------------
Hit and Link Analysis: http://www.mall-net.com/webcons/
-------------------------------------------------------
Web Imagineering -- Analysis, Architecture, Automation,
Advanced CGI-BIN Programming, and Content Development.
<A HREF="http://www.mall-net.com"> www.Mall-Net.com</A>
* Anti-Spam FAQ: http://www.mall-net.com/spamfaq.html
____________________________________________________________________
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Join The Web Consultants Association : Register on our web site Now
Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants
If you lose the instructions All subscription/unsubscribing can be done
directly from our website for all our lists.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
