|
Day traders drive J2 shares
|
 |
July 7, 1999: 6:49 p.m. ET
Normally thinly-traded, company is among the Nasdaq's top gainers
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The shareholders of J2 Communications Inc. threw a party that would have made Bluto Blutarsky proud Wednesday.
Aided greatly by a host of day traders swarming around its stock, the typically thinly-traded company that licenses the National Lampoon trademark -- which includes Blutarsky's "Animal House" -- tapped a new high of 15-3/8 Wednesday on volume of more than 1.3 million shares.
The stock, which before Wednesday averaged a mere 32,500 shares traded daily, closed Tuesday at 7-1/2.
J2 Communciation's (JTWO) President and CEO Jim Jimmiro credited the surge in price to growing interest in the company's forthcoming Internet venture, nationallampoon.com. But even Jimmiro said he was fascinated at the day trading activity playing out on his company's Internet message boards.
"It's just fascinating," Jimmiro said shortly before the market closed. "There's a big debate going on right now between the day traders and non-day traders."
J2 Communications' stock was feeling high all day
Jimmiro, a former Walt Disney executive, bought the ailing Los Angeles-based company in 1990. After several lean years, J2 seemed to catch its break last year after landing a lucrative contract with Fox Family Worldwide to use the National Lampoon name.
Jimmiro is using the proceeds from that contract to launch the Web site, billed as "The Humor Network," which will market National Lampoon merchandise and serve as a platform for developing new characters, features and stories for television and movies.
"We've got a lot at stake here," he said. "This Internet site can and will be the creative font for this company."
But there was little mention of the Internet venture on J2 Communication's message boards Wednesday as the company's stock surged forward.
"I've seen this story before," lamented one J2 post. "Every long hypes the stock for the next few days, then in one hour the momentum changes...they stop hyping and start to look for a good exit point...not telling the others that they have pulled the plug."
Jimmiro, who owns 27 percent of the J2 Communication's stock, benefited more than anyone from the stock's climb yesterday, but so too did two Indiana home builders, Daniel Laikin and Paul Skjodt, who have quietly complied a nearly 22 percent stake in the firm.
Jimmiro said the two investors have expressed interest in finding a strategic partner for J2 Communications, but there were no such plans at this time.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
