UNITED ONLINE STOCK SURGES 20% IN WEEK.Byline: Evan Pondel Staff Writer WESTLAKE VILLAGE - United Online Inc. has seen its shares jump nearly 20 percent in the past week, as rival AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. Time Warner is reportedly shedding subscribers in droves. The once high-flying Internet service provider Internet service provider (ISP) Company that provides Internet connections and services to individuals and organizations. For a monthly fee, ISPs provide computer users with a connection to their site (see data transmission), as well as a log-in name and password. lost one million dial-up customers in about a year, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a report in Wednesday's The Washington Post, allowing the less exposed companies to sop up the fallout, analysts said. But United Online attributes its success to several factors - namely that Mark Goldston, chief executive officer, has been meeting with big brokerage houses back East. ``We've been talking with tons of investors,'' Goldston, who was on a business trip in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , said by phone Wednesday. ``And a lot of people are brand-new to our story. It's nice when we can see investors and they can sit down with us.'' Analysts say it's also a positive when a company is able to beat out a large multimedia conglomerate on Wall Street. United Online gained $2.46, or 10.6 percent, to close at $25.71 on Wednesday on the Nasdaq market. AOL added 32 cents, or 2.1 percent, to close at $15.53 on the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. . ``The company is doing well right now, but there is some potential for weakness,'' said Mark May, an analyst with Kaufman Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . in New York, who expects the stock to hit $27. ``We'll see how they perform in their next quarter. We're expecting to see some upside.'' Other brokerage firms have expressed confidence in the Westlake Village company, which has boasted 1 million new paid subscribers since merging NetZero Inc. and Juno Online Services Juno client software icon Juno is an Internet service provider based in the United States. It is a subsidiary of United Online, which also owns NetZero and Bluelight Internet Services. in summer 2001. First Albany raised its price target for shares of the discount Internet service provider last week to $25 from $21. To prolong its performance, United Online has unleashed an aggressive marketing blitz in an effort to woo prospective subscribers. The company's Juno and NetZero service costs $9.95 a month, ``half the cost of AOL'' read an advertisement on United Online's Web site. And subscribers can speed up their dial-up connection for $5. Greg Lee Greg Lee (born March 3, 1962 in Hebron, Nebraska) is an American actor and voice-actor. He attended York College (Nebraska) in York, Nebraska, and Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City in the early 1980's. , a research associate with Raymond James and Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla., said United Online's performance is impressive, but a lot of investors are ``betting against dial-up.'' ``And investors are taking a short interest in the stock (expecting the stock to decline)'' said Lee, who owns stock in AOL. ``But what AOL is going through is also troublesome, as their value is in their subscriber base.'' Evan Pondel, (818) 713-3662 evan.pondel(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): chart Chart: DIALED UP SOURCE: Staff Research Daily News |
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