E-Business Breakfast: Et Tu, Brute?

Analysts who once fawned over Web service providers are now taking turns clubbing their former darlings on the back. UBS Warburg analyst Adam Frisch is the latest analyst to take his swipes at the sector while it is down. He cut his ratings on Proxicom and Sapient, saying he expects them to tumble down the same path as companies like marchFirst, Scient, Viant, Razorfish and Agency.com.

Frisch cut his 12-month target prices, along with his fourth-quarter and full-year 2001 revenue and cash earnings estimates on the firms. Analysts' rating reductions are obviously not unwarranted in the wake of a turbulent second half of year for the Web services sector. But it begs the question: Weren't these the same people bowing before the altars of people like Razorfish's Jeffrey Dachis and Scient's Bob Howe at the start of 2000?

Analysts should be held just as accountable for their irrational valuations of these Web solutions firms. But then again, it's easy to throw eggs at the parade after it has passed you.

Good morning! That's the top E-Business Breakfast musing for Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2000. Here's what else is going on in the world of Web services:

Agency.com Goes Latin

Jennifer Lopez and Carlos Santana are not the only celebrities who have taken America by storm this year. Despite a difficult year, Web integrators are finding some spicy new opportunities in the Latin market. Quaxar, the Latin American affiliate of New York-based Web integrator Agency.com, forged an alliance with Glides, a provider of multilingual Web content management solutions.

Through the partnership, Quaxar will be able to use Glides' UniSite content management solution to build multilingual Web sites for its customers. In addition, Quaxar selected UniSite to power its own Spanish/English Web site. Quaxar is based in Miami.

Agency.com also introduced a co-operation with the Latin American version of DirectTV.

For more recent news on Agency.com, click here.

Even Better Than The Real Thing

Razorfish is working with Coca-Cola to develop the company's marketing Web site in the Nordic region.

Razorfish will team with Coke to build a site that speaks to the teenage demographic in the Nordic countries.

The integrator hopes to provide the soft drink maker with a fresh online presence. The Web site will be launched in early 2001.

For more on Razorfish, click here.

Strange But True

Even Spider Man can't shake off the dot-com doldrums. The creator of Spiderman and the Fantastic Four found a villain even his fabled creations couldn't beat: the stock market.

Stan Lee Media, out of time and money, laid off 140 people at its Encino, Calif., headquarters, according to Reuters.

The company, named for the man who created The X-Men, The Avengers and other comic book heroes, had secured bridge financing of $2.2 million and an equity line of up to $40 million. But the agreements were contingent on the company's stock price, which fell below $1 a share last week.

That's the Breakfast for today. If you have any Web-related dish to serve, call me today at (516) 733-8576.