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STRICTLY BUSINESS/tEit dtarlotte
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Suniev: Computer use can result In proiils
Continued from page 8C
nology interests of small
minority- and women-owned
businesses can strengthen
our nation’s economy and
help create jobs.”
Sixty-eight percent of busi
nesses surveyed reported
using computers in their
accounting and 43 percent
used e-mail to attract or
interact with customers.
.Forty-two percent reported
having a web site. More suc
cessful small businesses
reported using technology to
improve office operations,
service, product delivery and
financial controls.
“By showing that produc
tivity is enhanced with more
extensive use of computers
across a greater array of
business functions, this
study suggests one way to
help more minority- and
women-owned businesses
succeed and become more
prominent in the world of
small business,” said Robert
Lerman PhD, senior fellow
at the Urban Institute and
professor of economics at
American University.
The study found that the
cost of technology doesn’t
appear to be a bapier to its
adoption by small business
es. Twenty percent of respon
dents said technology was
unaffordable. Researchers
also found no significan dif
ferences in technology use
among minority and women
business owners, compared
to white men entrepreneurs.
But a lack of skills and
training could pose a prob
lem. Nearly half of respon
dents said they lacked or
were unsure of their comput
er skills, and many reported
relying on family or fnends
as their main source of tech
nical support.
“Making these communi
ties more technology-compe
tent will probably require
more education, training
and technical support, but
our study suggest such
efforts will pay dividends in
the form of improved busi
ness practice and business
performance,” Lerman said.
Dot-com IPOs get ready for sequel after late ‘90s meltdown
Continued from page 8C
over the past year, a move
capped last week by its
announcement of a two-for-
one stock split. Such success
es have removed some of the
stain associated with being a
dot-com.
“It’s kind of hip to be dot
com again,” said Ibm TauUi,
manager of the Oceanus
Value Fund, a hedge fimd
based in Newport Beach,
Calif “It’s back in style. It’s
retro.”
It’s also a marked change
from the recent past. In the
1990s, companies fell over
themselves to add a “.com” to
their'names. In 1995, 1-800-
Flowers, one of the best-
known telephone florist
brands, became 1-800-
Flowers.com Inc. before its
1999 IPO. That Web name
came even though the com
pany’s telephone sales at the
time - and even now - are
greater than those generat
ed online.
Once the bubble burst,
many companies back
tracked.
Even companies that
arguably should have had a
dot-com in their name
dropped them. Netflix Inc.,
the online movie-rental com
pany, originally filed to go
public in April 2000 as
Netflix.com. But the compa
ny withdrew its IPO three
months later, citing poor
market conditions. About
two years later, it successful
ly went pubhc without the
dot-com suffix.
The new dot-coms plan
ning IPOs have had the
chance ^o change their
names and didn’t. In fact,
Shopping.com, an Israel-
based online comparison
shopping company, did
change its name, but
remained a dot-com. The
company was known as
DealTime.com Ltd. when it
filed in March 2000 to raise
$50 million through the now-
defunct Robertson Stephens.
The company withdrew that
offering in 2001 and later
changed its name. 'The com
pany, which refiled its IPO in
late March, plans to raise
about $75 milhon.
The recent wave of dot-com
IPOs comes as other
Internet offerings have per
formed well. In December,
Ctrip.com International
Ltd., a Chinese online travel
agent, became the first com
pany in more than two years
to trade at more than double
its offering price in initial
trading.
What’s more, the added
breed of dot-coms don’t
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