THE DAY AHEAD: Stocks to Watch
Expect the following tech stocks to be among Friday's movers: Beyond.com, Inso Corp., Quantum, Ericsson and Wit Capital.
The online software retailer, along with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Intellisys Technology Corp. (Nasdaq: ISGP), was awarded from the Internal Revenue Service a 65-month contract worth about $120 million to deliver and maintain Microsoft software. Beyond slipped 9/16 to 17 7/16.
The electronic publisher said Thursday the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a formal investigation related to Inso's restatement of 1998 financial results.
Separately, the company reported a net loss of almost $22 million, or $1.42 per share, for the fiscal first quarter ended April 30, 1999. The net loss included special charges of $3.454 million, or 22 cents per share. In the year-ago fiscal first quarter, Inso reported net income exceeding $10.7 million, or 71 cents per share, including a charge and a gain.
Net revenue for the first quarter were $11.5 million, up from year-ago quarterly net revenue of $10.3 million, excluding $6.2 million in revenues from Inso's former linguistic operating segment.
Stephen Jaeger, Inso's CEO, said the company's management plans cost-cutting that include a reduction of more than 20 percent in Inso's workforce, consolidation of some facilities, and the write-off of certain assets. Inso expects to take a restructuring charge of about $5 million to $7 million in its fiscal second quarter.
Shares rose 1/8 to 7 on Thursday.
After market close Thursday, the Milpitas, Calif.-based maker of hard disk drives and tape storage products said it expects fiscal first quarter earnings to be between 5 cents and 15 cents a share. First Call's survey of 12 analysts had predicted first quarter net income of 31 cents.
Price pressure in the hard disk drive market is hurting Quantum's revenue, said Michael Brown, Quantum's Chairman and CEO.
Quantum dipped 9/16 to 19 9/16.
The Swedish wireless titan landed a contract to sell $750 million worth of equipment over five years to BellSouth Corp. (NYSE: BLS).
BellSouth said it will buy 17 switches and 1,400 cell sites which will direct and transmit calls on its wireless network. The equipment will be deployed in six states from Florida to Kentucky.
The deal replaces BellSouth's previous contract with Hughes Electronics Corp. (NYSE: GMH), which expired.
BellSouth chose Sweden's Ericsson after evaluating proposals from several companies, including Hughes, Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU), and Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE: NT), a BellSouth spokeswoman said.
The online investment bank, which has been e-manager for several IPOs, will finally make its own public splash today. Wit priced its 7.6 million share offering Thursday night at $9.
The price range was between $7 and $9 a share.
For 1998, Wit reported a net loss of $8.8 million on revenue of $2 million. For the quarter ending March 31, the company reported a loss of $4.9 million on revenue of $3.9 million.
-Eric C. Fleming contributed to this report.