Dateline: 05/07/99
American Internet stocks have taken a shellacking during the last two weeks and it is uncertain if they will continue to fall further or pull up with a nice recovery. In Canada, the markets have been more mixed. After listing on the NASDAQ, Canada's darling Bid.com took a swan dive from around $30 down to below $10 before closing around $14 in two days of trading. Then it jumped back up to $24, settled back again and closed yesterday at $18.35.
At the same time, Microforum took off like a rocket, closing over $9 last Friday and settling back to close at $8 yesterday. It hit as high as $12 at one point. Trading at around $2.25 only three weeks ago, it was one of the hottest stocks on the TSE the last two weeks. An e-commerce solutions provider, Microforum recently concluded important agreements with Microsoft. It has had strong revenue growth in every quarter during the last year.
Last weekend I added Moffat Communications to my collection of Canadian Internet Stocks. I had missed them in my Internet on Cable article, but, in fact, Moffat recently reached agreement with @Home to become the fourth Canadian company to provide the @Home service. Moffat owns CKY TV, Manitoba's first and largest private broadcaster, and Videon Cable Systems which operates in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario. They have a cable subsidiary in Edmonton. Moffat also owns cable companies in Florida and Texas. Videon's @Home service should be available by mid-summer.
Like the other cable companies in the Internet Index, Moffat has done well so far this year. Last month it announced Second Quarter results which showed net income up 36%. It recently underwent a 2 for 1 stock split. Moffat stock is up 77.3% as of last Friday, the best performance for a cable stock after Rogers.
Also added to my index last weekend was Bridges Initiatives Inc., a small company based in Kelowna, B.C. Bridges provides career development tools for students on the Internet through its specialized software. It has client schools throughout Canada and the U.S.. It is one of the few Net-based businesses making a profit and has shown exceptional growth over the last year. Its stock has grown from 75 cents to over $5 since January 1. The company trades on the Alberta Stock Exchange.
Originally I had planned to list every single Canadian Internet stock on my Canadian Internet Stock Average, but as I've now got 29 on the list and am finding it awkward manually changing the prices and growth percentage every week, I will limit the list to thirty. If new and better Internet stocks come along, I may replace certain current stocks on the list.
One stock I have resisted adding to the list (and which I will continue to resist adding) is DeJour Mines. This penny mining stock was trading at just two cents on January 1. Then in mid-February it announced an agreement to acquire an interest in International Documents Inc. of Dallas, Texas. Its stock jumped to over a dollar, a 5000% increase, in a matter of days. It is now at 70 cents a share. In my opinion, DeJour is no Internet stock, so I won't be listing it anytime soon.
Today marks the beginning of a new regular feature. Every Friday will be Internet Update day with a quick look at some of the events of the preceding week in Canadian Internet stocks.
Disclosure:: The author has no interests in any stocks mentioned in today's feature article.
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