Immer watt Neues, Gruss E.
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Theglobe.com (TGLO: news, chart, profile), whose IPO hit a record-setting 600 percent first-day-gain on the U.S. stock market in 1998 and whose operations were subsequently shut down by June 2002, says it's back.
Co-founder Stephan Paternot recently sent an e-mail to explain that Theglobe.com is making a push into voice over IP (Internet protocol). The company purchased an Internet phone company called Direct Partner Telecom for 1.375 million shares in Theglobe.com stock plus half a million warrants.
Shares of Theglobe.com were trading Tuesday at $1.76; they were at 74 cents at the start of the month.
It's quite a metamorphosis from Theglobe's original business, which was to build online communities, one of the essential "C" terms, together with content and commerce. Back in the dot-com heydays, the strategy was to feature all the C's and attract viewers.
Paternot suggests that he, too, is a changed man from that period, or as he puts it, his "swashbuckling" days four years ago. The aspiring actor, after all, did undergo some cathartic healing in the last year as he attempted to transform his memoirs into a feature film. See Net: Dot-com boy wonder.
But the more things change, the more they stay the same, like the innate desire to embellish.
With the purchase of Direct Partner, which is in development stage, Paternot says that Theglobe.com will be "one of the first players in the field offering lowest domestic and international phone rates (that's right folks, we'll all be able to cut our phone bills in half pretty soon)," he wrote in his e-mail.
Theglobe.com (TGLO: news, chart, profile) recorded $10 million in sales last year, and a profit in the fourth quarter, Paternot boasts. Online games supply most of the revenue.
This is a company that on its first day of trading in November 1999, popped up to a market valuation of $881.22 million, after its IPO of $9 shot up to $90 at the open. By the close, it was up 605 percent to $63.50. It holds the second highest first-day gain behind V.A. Linux (LNUX: news, chart, profile), whose shares ended the day up nearly 700 percent, according to Dealogic.
Theglobe's press material may very well be the ultimate sign that the bubble is back. But it's not the only sign.
Merrill Lynch tech strategist Steve Milunovich said that price-to-earnings multiples are rising again amid post-bubble rallies.
"Tech is trading near or at peak multiples," he wrote. "In addition, tech P/Es are much higher than any time pre-bubble in the '80s and '90s."
Unless earnings bounce back, Milunovich warned, tech valuation is stretched.
In prior post-bubble rallies, the P/E for technology sold at 2.3 times the forward earnings of nontech sectors, he said in a Tuesday note. Today, that P/E ratio for tech valuation is at 2.1.
Besides stretched multiples, and Theglobe.com comeback, there is also the emergence of those "B2Bs." Recall, after Theglobe.com helped to make "IPO" a household acronym, the "B2B" rage ushered in a new crop of Internet companies. "B2B" stands for business-to-business, or companies that facilitate communications or commerce between corporations as opposed to consumers.
ChemConnect was just one of those so-called "B2B" companies that never made it into the public forum. The company, which filed to raise $80 million in a public offering in April 2000 by Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch only to withdraw that offering in June 30 2000, is also back in the news.
The software company said Tuesday that Bloomberg will distribute real-time market information on prices of raw materials and chemicals from ChemConnect.
Theglobe.com (TGLO: news, chart, profile), whose IPO hit a record-setting 600 percent first-day-gain on the U.S. stock market in 1998 and whose operations were subsequently shut down by June 2002, says it's back.
Co-founder Stephan Paternot recently sent an e-mail to explain that Theglobe.com is making a push into voice over IP (Internet protocol). The company purchased an Internet phone company called Direct Partner Telecom for 1.375 million shares in Theglobe.com stock plus half a million warrants.
Shares of Theglobe.com were trading Tuesday at $1.76; they were at 74 cents at the start of the month.
It's quite a metamorphosis from Theglobe's original business, which was to build online communities, one of the essential "C" terms, together with content and commerce. Back in the dot-com heydays, the strategy was to feature all the C's and attract viewers.
Paternot suggests that he, too, is a changed man from that period, or as he puts it, his "swashbuckling" days four years ago. The aspiring actor, after all, did undergo some cathartic healing in the last year as he attempted to transform his memoirs into a feature film. See Net: Dot-com boy wonder.
But the more things change, the more they stay the same, like the innate desire to embellish.
With the purchase of Direct Partner, which is in development stage, Paternot says that Theglobe.com will be "one of the first players in the field offering lowest domestic and international phone rates (that's right folks, we'll all be able to cut our phone bills in half pretty soon)," he wrote in his e-mail.
Theglobe.com (TGLO: news, chart, profile) recorded $10 million in sales last year, and a profit in the fourth quarter, Paternot boasts. Online games supply most of the revenue.
This is a company that on its first day of trading in November 1999, popped up to a market valuation of $881.22 million, after its IPO of $9 shot up to $90 at the open. By the close, it was up 605 percent to $63.50. It holds the second highest first-day gain behind V.A. Linux (LNUX: news, chart, profile), whose shares ended the day up nearly 700 percent, according to Dealogic.
Theglobe's press material may very well be the ultimate sign that the bubble is back. But it's not the only sign.
Merrill Lynch tech strategist Steve Milunovich said that price-to-earnings multiples are rising again amid post-bubble rallies.
"Tech is trading near or at peak multiples," he wrote. "In addition, tech P/Es are much higher than any time pre-bubble in the '80s and '90s."
Unless earnings bounce back, Milunovich warned, tech valuation is stretched.
In prior post-bubble rallies, the P/E for technology sold at 2.3 times the forward earnings of nontech sectors, he said in a Tuesday note. Today, that P/E ratio for tech valuation is at 2.1.
Besides stretched multiples, and Theglobe.com comeback, there is also the emergence of those "B2Bs." Recall, after Theglobe.com helped to make "IPO" a household acronym, the "B2B" rage ushered in a new crop of Internet companies. "B2B" stands for business-to-business, or companies that facilitate communications or commerce between corporations as opposed to consumers.
ChemConnect was just one of those so-called "B2B" companies that never made it into the public forum. The company, which filed to raise $80 million in a public offering in April 2000 by Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch only to withdraw that offering in June 30 2000, is also back in the news.
The software company said Tuesday that Bloomberg will distribute real-time market information on prices of raw materials and chemicals from ChemConnect.
