CMGI, Inc. - Internet incubator company needs a respirator

Beautifully engraved certificate from the CMGI, Inc. issued in 2001. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of the company logo. This item has the printed signatures of the Company’s President and Chief Financial Officer.


Certificate Vignette

The firm once nurtured new companies in-house and invested in others but has been hit hard by the downturn in Internet stocks. Now it is a holding company involved in e-business and fulfillment; infrastructure and enabling technologies; interactive marketing; Internet professional services; and search and portals. The company's portfolio had grown to hold more than 70 Internet companies, including AltaVista (about 80%), Engage, and uBid, but CMGI has announced it will only continue to fund those holdings it believes will survive the fallout. The firm's CMGI @Ventures venture capital arm is cutting back its investments.

The company's stock traded at $160 / Share in January 2000. It's now trading below $2.00 / Share and the trendline is going in the wrong direction. On September 26, 2001 the company reported the following:

Sep. 26--CMGI, the former high-flying Internet "incubator" struggling to morph into an Internet operating and development company, reported continued losses yesterday in an earnings report after the close of financial markets.

The Andover-based company, which has been hit particularly hard by the decline in Internet advertising, reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $1.27 billion, which is nearly double its net loss in the same quarter a year ago. The company also warned that fiscal 2002 net revenue is expected to decline approximately 10 percent vs. fiscal 2001 net revenue, primarily as a result of "restructuring and divestitures" that took place during fiscal 2001.

During a conference call with reporters and analysts, CMGI chairman and chief executive David Wetherell stated that the company's strategy will be to slim down and focus on profitable businesses.

"We continue to aggressively restructure the operations of our core holdings and have taken several key steps to improve the prospects of these businesses," Wetherell said.

To that end, CMGI announced that it has ceased funding the operations of Internet access provider NaviPath and agreed to sell its webcasting firm Activate.com to Loudeye Technologies Inc. The company's Engage unit also sold some of its online advertising assets to BlueStreak, a marketing company.

Among the areas that CMGI plans to focus on, according to Wetherell, are e-commerce, fulfillment, software, and services. The company intends to build on assets like the search engine AltaVista, auction service uBid, and Internet services firm Tallan.

CMGI said it expects to break even on a recurring operating basis during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2002, which ends July 31.

CMGI ended the 2001 fiscal year July 31 with cash and cash equivalents of $710.7 million. The company said it expects to finish fiscal 2002 with a cash and cash equivalents balance of more than $325 million. Yesterday CMGI shares rose 1 cent to $1.19.