For those watching Internet stocks on the Nasdaq, the ride's been bumpy enough for a while now to make one feel a bit queasy. This despite stock prices firmly rooted in real revenues (er, with the
exception of Google, of course), unlike the late 1990s. However, The Christian Science Monitor says the volatility is all part of the natural progression of new technology movements, "moving from the
early phases of boom and bust toward maturity." Even Google's recent meteoric rise and 25 percent fall is "hardly unusual for a fast-growing company," the paper says. Having said that, an NYU
financial expert reckons that Google's market value is 90 percent about what investors hope will occur in the future--hence the volatile stock price. But uncertainty in the media biz is evident all
over the place: Amazon is now reevaluating its business model after posting a 43 percent fourth quarter decline, eBay is now facing competition from Google, everyone seems to be opening some kind of
online video store along with a portable digital media player to boot, and meanwhile, no one is really sure how consumers will react. In the end, we sometimes have to remind ourselves that shakeout
and stability won't occur until consumers have chosen where the future lies.
Read the whole story at The Christian Science Monitor »
