Lycos Inc shares soared after the company announced a 2 for 1 stock split on Monday. Shares closed above $99, breaking its 52- week record of $86. Excite Inc, which announced a similar split last week, also gained in price, as did Yahoo! and Amazon.com. In fact the only major Net company to close down was Netscape Commuinications Corp. Lycos joins Amazon, K-tel and Excite in announcing the 2 for 1 split. As net stocks gain value, the barriers to entry rise for the small-scale shareholders, who still make up the bulk of tech investors. Stock splits help broaden ownership. As Lycos CFO Ted Philips puts it: We’re splitting the shares to make the price more manageable for retail investors. Liquidity mitigates some of the volatility of a stock, because there are more shares in the market for trading. The board of directors has approved the stock split, to go into effect on August 14, but their decision is subject to shareholder approval. Since there isn’t enough authorized common stock to consummate the split at present, the company’s certificates of incorporation will have to be changed. Assuming the split does go ahead, Lycos will have 38 million common shares outstanding.
