March
7, 2000
In this week's report. . .
Individual Investor Group Scores Big On Equity-For-Advertising Trade
Jonathan
Steinberg, CEO of the Individual Investor Group, the parent of Individual
Investor magazine, recently declared the results of a barter arrangement
the magazine originally consummated in 1997.
Back
then, the magazine provided Wit Capital with advertising and was paid
with 250,000 shares of Series A preferred stock...valued at $250,000.
Then,
as a result of a 7 for 10 reverse split of common stock and the completion
of Wit Capital's initial public offering on June 4, 1999, these shares
were converted into 175,000 shares of common stock, which has subsequently
been cashed out at 10 times original value! In the company's fourth
quarter they reported a one-time gain of $2.8 million from the sale
of its stake in Wit Capital Group.
Barter
Is Routinely Used By Our Nation's Most Powerful Lobbyists And Merchant
Bankers
Former
politicians and government officials often become lobbyists when they
retire from their government positions. But today many are moving
in another direction, becoming more involved financially in the companies
they represent...and they call themselves merchant bankers.
Regardless of what title they use, today lobbyists/merchant bankers
are scouting investments, raising money for business ventures, plus
taking ownership in deals. And, more likely than not, barter is a
component in the negotiations.
The
well-connected now offer business advice and seek to attract investors,
especially for high-tech companies. In return for their political
connections and providing "strategic investment advice" these former
government officials turned merchant bankers receive payment in the
form of barter, i.e. stock (upwards of 10% ownership) in the companies
they are assisting to secure government contracts.
The
Zen Of Cash Flow
The
power of a continual leveraging of your assets is staggering. Consider
the following. . .
If
you started with 2 pennies in the first square of your chess board
and doubled the result sequentially through each of the remaining
squares, you would end up with $184,467,440,737,095,516.16 in the
64th square!
- Wasatch International
Corp. has concluded negotiations for the global expansion of E-Pawn.com,
entering into exclusive development and marketing rights for its online
auction and barter site, and licensing of its software to Exchequer
Investments (a privately held UK-based company).
E-Pawn has created and developed a multitude of e-commerce web sites
which include www.pawnshopauctionline.com, a buy, sell, barter site,
and www.swappage.com which is a store front with over 3,000 interesting
items from gifts to imported clocks, paintings and big ticket items
such as automobiles, yachts, jets, homes and estates.
- Another new
barter site launch is scheduled for March by a Burlington, Massachusetts-based
online barter service. Founded last August, ExchangeAnything.com the
company's business model will focus on the online family, high tech,
and college communities. An initial round of financing ($1 million)
was recently concluded.
- Burntsand, Inc.,
a North American provider of e-business solutions, reported strong
growth in revenue and earnings for the fiscal year ended December
31, 1999. Revenues grew 117% to $38.6 million from $17.8 million in
1998. One of Burntsand's clients is San Francisco's BarterTrust.com.
- Sportsline.com,
the parent of Sports.com, a European site, found out the "name value"
of three investors who contributed a comparatively paltry $2.5 million:
Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, and Tiger Woods. The American icons
attracted far more media attention from European newspapers than did
the more than $50 million in funding from the likes of billionaire
George Soros and investment bank Goldman Sachs Group.
Incidentally, Sportsline.com became the first major site to tout celebrities
when they traded stock to former NFL quarterback Joe Namath, who reportedly
still holds the stock worth millions-of-dollars today.
- NBC-TV, its
shopping channel partner ValueVision International, and NBC Internet
are trading advertising and promotion for a minority stake in SelfCare.com,
a health and wellness e-commerce site targeting women and families.
- Yet2.com is
an internet company whose site allows major companies such as Boeing,
Polariod, and 3M to post their technologies for license in an open
forum when a deal is set between the parties. Yet2.com takes 10% of
the value of the final contract, up to $50,000.
- Another web
site, uWork.com, founded in 1999, is offering business-to-business
staff exchange for Fortune 500 companies. The exchange allows large
corporations to more efficiently buy, sell, barter, and manage outsourced
professional services such as information technology, finance, legal,
and health care.
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