Web Bargain Hunting. (Wall Street West).

Ever since the tech wreck, there has been talk that many dot-coins are worth more dead than alive - in other words, the cash they have left in the bank from public offerings is worth more than the company as a whole, based on its stock-market price. The implication: the money-losing Web business is worth less than zero.

Investors have asked some Web companies to shut down and make a one-time payment to shareholders. That wasn't what happened at Marina del Rey-based L-90 Inc. recently, but close. L-90 has about $2.00 a share in the bank, but was trading for $1.20 in early December. On Jan. 3, mid-Wilshire-based eUniverse Inc. announced it would buy L-90 for between $2.00 and $2.20 a share in cash, depending on various caveats.

Of course, that means eUniverse bought L90's operations for potentially nothing. EUniverse is a profit-making collection of Web sites selling low-price products, health insurance, diet and dating services. It also sends out more than one billion commercial e-mails each week.

L-90's business (which is not profitable) is providing "turnkey" Web advertising campaigns to brick-and-mortar companies that want a Web presence, with lots of traffic and brand identity. L-90 is also a big e-mailer.

EUniverse officials said the merging of L-90 with eUniverse would lower its operating costs and increase market share. "eUniverse has developed a diversified and profitable online business model," said Brad Greenspan, chairman and chief executive of eUniverse. "Our acquisition of L-90 will help solidify our existing operating base and ... (help us grow)." Greenspan said the acquisition would add more than $2 million to eUniverse's net income in the first 12 months after closing. "This incremental profit will be achieved through the synergies that are realized by combining the operations of the two companies."

For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, eUniverse has projected net income of $1.6 million (8 cents a share) on $9.3 million in revenues. EUniverse stock has soared to more than $7 a share last week, from $2 a share in October.

Contributing columnist Benjamin Mark Cole writes about the local investment community for the Los Angeles Business Journal. His new book is "The Pied Pipers of Wall Street: How Analysts Sell You Down the River," published by Bloomberg Press.