LookingConfident's  Instablog

Well, a poster in OZ Mike Mora (www.SierraWebMarketing.com) says that he does .... Mike (who often posts in multiple aliases and certainly according to the side of the trade he is on), had posted on Yahoo that:

Wow: Pump. Dump. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. ."Goodman hates LookSmart".

I had then followed Mike's posted Link to the story to find the latest Andrew Goodman comment to be a 2nd he'd made, that I feel I have reason enough (once again), to disagree with. Many share price values have fallen dramatically during the financial crisis. That Looksmart has $30M in cash and a Market Cap of $20M is simply a sign of the times. IMHO, of course.

You can see my reply and any 'follow-up' from Andrew Goodman on his site, here:

 http://www.traffick.com/2009/09/pump-dump-lather-rinse-repeat.asp 

My reply (as can be seen, twice in fact) is as follows:

Traffick.com Comments

Hi Andrew .... You have posted: 

"A few would-be investment gurus chimed in with comments, asking us to "look again" at the company's bright future."

And that:

"One of the company's bright spots, a minor partnership with IAC, is ending soon, as announced in May........... Even optimists will have trouble disputing that this company is winding down."

Here's a quick note to let you know that I remain an optimist.

Check the rise in traffic to AdCenter and who it is from, here:

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/Looksmart.com

12 months ago Looksmart had announced of the addition of 30 high-quality distribution partners, some of which (they advise), resulted from expanding internationally into the UK and Australia. It's clear that they now operate and have representation in 6 Countries in all. [Private labeled, no doubt]

http://investor.shareholder.com/looksmart/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=337996

https://adcenter.looksmart.com/help/api?page=country_codes

Andrew. Have a little 'play around' in that above link to check the extent of 'geo-targeting' that's on offer. You may not realise that through the AdCenter platform, LookSmart's distribution partners are able to monetize their international search queries and advertisers are able to target down to the city-level in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

In relation to the "minor partnership with IAC" you mentioned, I'd like to advise you of Looksmart's own message on this from within the CC, following the Q2 Report:

Looksmart CEO Ted West told us:

"While no definitive platform transition plans have yet been discussed with ASL, LookSmart does plan to support ASL in transitioning to its new platform, however long and in whatever capacity their transition process requires. We also expect to continue to exchange valuable keyword advertising fees under a separate and mutual distribution agreement between ASL and LookSmart in the future"

The Looksmart CEO had also advised that:
 

"During the second quarter, the [AdCenter] platform processed well over 1 billion search queries and delivered over 2.2 million paid clicks per day.The AdCenter platform is build to scale, and importantly to operate and deliver paid click transactions both quickly and reliably at that scale"[Yes Andrew, PER DAY]

Andrew, again, you (yourself) had wrote:

"Even optimists will have trouble disputing that this company is winding down."

What I do have trouble with is trying to understand exactly where you (yourself) are coming from, Andrew?

You may need to have yet another (perhaps a closer) look here, possibly?

Cheers!
LookingConfident | 09.12.09 - 4:47 pm |
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I do hope that the celebrated "political scientist turned internet analyst" and legend in his own lunch-hour http://www.traffick.com/about/default.asp#bios (Andrew Goodman) can find enough time to check a few things out in regards to Looksmart prior to his next effort. Here's hoping he has something nicer to say then, too!

LOOK: On Sep 11: 1.17 0.03 (2.50%) 
 
Cheers!

Disclosure: Long time shareholder of Looksmart