First it was the flower children from Blue Mountain Arts that scraped
together a modest living developing playful e-greeting cards. But, one has
to wonder how underachiever Excite@Home’s (ATHM)
billion-dollar buyout affected the Dead Heads.
As the founders’ son Jared Schuzt tells it, money hasn’t changed Mom and
Pop much. But, I just can’t help thinking that somewhere in the Valley,
there’s a hippy pad on a hill with wall-to-wall shag carpeting and a
tie-dye Winnebago parked out front. And it makes me smile. 🙂
Now I hear the guys over at Ben & Jerry’s (BJICA) have traded in their Birkenstocks for a three-piece hemp suit. Can you
dig it? Unilever plc (UL)
announced plans to acquire Chunky Monkey for about $326 million. That’s
chump change for Unilever, a company that rang up $45 billion in
international sales last year, selling everything from soap to laundry
detergent.
Unilever also recently announced plans to go steady with SlimFast
Foods for $2.3 billion in cash. Something tells me, the Anglo-Dutch
giant can find some sweet synergies between these two newly acquired brands.
DealTracker scorecard: Unilever/Ben & Jerry’s | |
| Investor sentiment | A |
| Terms of the deal | B+ |
| Industry outlook | B- |
| Overall scorecard | B+ |
Also on Wednesday, iShopper.com (OTCBB: IHPR)
scooped up NowSeven.com and Stinkyfeet.com. According to the
press release, Stinkyfeet.com’s “technology allows for the use of multiple
search engines while keeping the user in the Stinkyfeet.com domain.” Yeah,
it’s called frames. And, someone needs to tell the folks at iShopper.com
they got hoodwinked and this deal plain stinks.
NowSeven.com apparently specializes in e-mail and B2B databases. The
company also produces e-zines and other marketing tools. NowSeven’s
products are aimed at driving traffic to its customers’ Web sites and
enhancing online communication and marketing.
That would be super if only the kids at NowSeven actually had a Web site to
speak of. Take it from me, it’s an uphill battle trying to grab market
share with a blank white page for a Web presence. Who are these customers
NowSeven is boasting about anyway? I’m guessing Zapata.
My sources tell me NowSeven also has plans in the works to add Linux,
name-your-own-price-auctions, cheap broadband Internet access, and free PCs
to its list of offerings. And, I hear if you hold your breath and stare at
the site’s blank screen long enough you can see the makings of an Internet
incubator to be unveiled later this month.
Then again, iShopper.com was
delisted from the OTC Bulletin Board on April
10th. IShopper’s credit has run dry, but investors don’t seem to mind. The
company traded just 300 shares on any given day, and has only 38,000 shares
outstanding. No word yet whether Dr. Scholl’s plans to take the helm at the
new start-up.
Any questions or comments, love letters or hate mail? As always, feel free
to forward them to kblack@internet.com!
DealTracker scorecard: iShopper.com/NowSeven.com & Stinkyfeet.com | |
| Investor sentiment | F |
| Terms of the deal | F |
| Industry outlook | F |
| Overall scorecard | F |
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