Book Advises Internet Investors to Bail Out

With Internet stocks running red hot again, one analyst says it’s a better time to sell than to buy.

Anthony B. Perkins, co-author of “The Internet Bubble” (Harper Business, 1999), sounds a familiar refrain: “Look at the growth they [Internet firms] have to experience in order to earn the [stock] values they have today. The math doesn’t add up,” said Perkins, editor of the tech magazine Red Herring.

Subtitled “Inside the Overvalued World of High-Tech Stocks and What You Need to Know to Avoid the Coming Shakeout,” the book looks at 133 Internet stocks, from Amazon.com Inc. to ZDNet Inc.

Silicon Valley insiders predict a sharp decline in many Internet stocks in the first quarter of 2000, Perkins contends.

But after tumbling in summer, many Net stocks have zoomed again over the last two months.

The author said the Oct. 27 announcement by Amazon.com that fourth-quarter spending would exceed estimates was a bad omen.

Amazon tumbled from $88 in mid-October to $63 by last week. But on Monday it was off to the races again, up $13.06 to $78.