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We also know that this company used to be one of the cool, new, and wonderful dot coms which were at one time worth more than $200 per share.
However, according to their Q10 filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it looks like they know they'll be out of business in November.
Where did Inktomi's business go wrong
Last year, a Ralph Nader backed consumer advocacy group called foul on search engines, saying that they needed to disclose better what results they were serving: ads, or algorithmically driven 'objective' search results. While INK isn't an actual search engine, they still serve results to one of the offenders in this case, to which the FTC recently responded with a letter saying some SE's needed to be more honest.
INK's programs of pay for inclusion / XML feed, are never properly disclosed at their portal partners site. They also don't tell people up front that paying to play gets you ranked higher. This might have changed since they relaunched their newer, better index, however when they first launched their pay for spidering program, you had to pay to be in the db that was queried first for results.
Now, with a stock price falling, financial troubles relating to their headquarters, and even their pay per click customers getting less traffic (because of the larger index) their revenue outlook is shoddy, at best.
With a share price of .46 cents last time I checked (yesterday) and no new partners or contracts in site, their Q10 filing last month has a very omnious sound of forboding in the closing lines.
WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO CONTINUE TO MEET THE CONTINUED LISTING CRITERIA FOR THENASDAQ NATIONAL MARKET WHICH WOULD MATERALLY ADVERSELY AFFECT OUR BUSINESS AND
FINANCIAL CONDITION.
From the Inktomi Q10 SEC filing [biz.yahoo.com].
To continue to be listed on the Nasdaq, a company needs to keep their price per share over $1.00 USD for 10 days or more out of 90.
Having said that, INK will be out of business in November unless they sign a new partner.
This is great news for search engine optimization / and web publishing as a whole. Adversiting is one thing, search engine results are something different, and should be treated as such.
Littleman has said that PFI is a failed business model. In two months, when this company finally bites it, I'll be glad to see his proposition be made truth.
