08-21-2001, 08:15 AM
Excite@home which once sold for $100 a share is now $0.47 a share. The funny thing is that their subscriber base has grown at a very good rate and they have I believe 4 million plus subscribers now. The media and content side of the business has been a disaster. The company started out as a provider of broadband services going the "last mile" to the home user. As the stock price ran up, management decided that they needed to develop a media and content business. Management made several acquisitions such as Excite using the stock price as it's currency. When the economy slowed the media and content business went belly up. The company has had to lay off many workers and take charges for severance packages, software purchases they can't use, and long term leased office space they can't use among other things. Now ATHM has warned the SEC that they may not have the financial capacity to stay in business for the rest of the year. Chapter 11 is looming. Yesterday the stock went from $0.87 to $0.47. I have a friend that bought at $50 on margin and has continued to pour money into this stock and now is down about $20,000 on it. He said he could spare a few more grand and average his cost down to the mid single digits.