B2B stocks continue to slide
--2:44 pm - By Tomi Kilgore
Merrill Lynch's B2B Holdrs (BHH: news, msgs), a basket of business-to-business e-nablers, is sliding $2.88, or 6.8 percent, to $39.31. In the last 2 weeks, the BHH has lost 20 percent. Among the basket's most heavily-weighted members, Ariba (ARBA: news, msgs) is down $10.77 to $119, Internet Capital Group (ICGE: news, msgs) is $2.81 lower at $12.88, Commerce One (CMRC: news, msgs) is losing $2.69 to $63.56 and VerticalNet (VERT: news, msgs) is getting sent $3.19 lower to $29.25. In the last two weeks, those stocks have seen losses of 21 percent, 44 percent, 7.1 percent and 27 percent, respectively. Weighing on the sector of late are concerns over delays in setting up exchanges and transaction fees. Fellow B2B e-nabler SciQuest (SQST: news, msgs) warned it would report greater-than-expected losses, hurt by lower overall gross margins as well as increased investments in sales and marketing. SQST is currently trading up 38 cents to $4.88 after tumbling 24 percent on Wednesday.
Net2Phone (NTOP: news, msgs) reported a quarterly loss of 29 cents per share based on revenues of $24.9 million, an increase of 125 percent over the same period last year. A survey of analysts by First Call had expected a loss of 30 cents for the quarter. The voice-traffic Internet company also said it will repurchase of up to five million shares, or approximately 9 percent, of the company's outstanding common stock. Shares closed up $1.31 to $25.
Snowball.com (SNOW: news, msgs) said its revenue and loss will be worse than expected for the third quarter. Also, the company is eliminating 15 percent of its workforce. The Internet company said its pro forma loss will be 36 cents to 38 cents per share on revenue of $5 million to $5.2 million. Analysts surveyed by First Call currently expect a loss of 42 cents per share, on average, to be reported on Oct. 26. Shares finished the day unchanged at $1.25.
Veeco Instruments (VECO: news, msgs) warned that third-quarter earnings will come in between 18 and 22 cents a share, below Wall Street expectations. Analysts polled by First Call were looking for a profit of 40 cents a share. Sales are forecast at $93 million, 7 percent below the company's previous guidance of $104 million. Veeco attributed the shortfall to the weak performance of its CVC unit due to delayed orders and shipments from data storage and semiconductor customers and higher costs at its Virginia ion beam deposition operations. In addition, the company said Christine Whitman has resigned as president and chief operating offer. Edward Braun, Veeco's CEO and chairman, was named to the additional post of president. Veeco also offered guidance for its fourth quarter and fiscal 2001 results. The shares closed Thursday at $102.53, up 0.5 percent.
