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Multicity CEO Highlights Success in Tough Times
Title: Multicity.com
CEO Alain Hanash Highlights Multicity.com's Success in Tough Economic
Times
Author:
Source:
WUSA-TV, Washington, DC, Evening Newscast
March 13, 2001
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Gordon Peterson, co-anchor:
There were mixed messages today on Wall Street as investors
cautiously returned to the market that burned a lot of them
just yesterday. The Dow ended today up 82.55 at 10290.8. And
the NASDAQ recovered after yesterday's one hundred twenty-nine-point
drop, closing at 2014.8. That's up 91.42. Nine Eyewitness News
reporter Bruce Leshan is in our newsroom with the latest. Bruce,
what do you know?
Bruce Leshan reporting:
Gordon, both tech companies and blue chip companies got some
help from late night-late day bargain hunters. The advances
are pretty darn small compared with the huge losses of yesterday.
So what kind of companies are going to survive in this kind
of turmoil? Good companies that focus on providing value and
service to their customers.
In Tyson's Corner, Internet start-up Multicity.com still has
the game room so common in area tech companies, but Multicity.com's
is still crowded.
Alain Hanash (Chief Executive Officer, Multicity.com):
Our strategy is to continue growing, hire more people and just
extend our business to other countries, and to continue extending
our product offerings.
Leshan: In the go-go days of a year ago, a company with a promising
business plan like Multicity.com's would probably have gone public.
Its software allows instant global Web site translation. But
the co-founding brothers decided to build the business first
and go public later.
Hanash: We wanted to build a business rather than build
the hype.
Leshan: Fairfax-based WebMethods did go public just before last
year's market peak. It's seen its stock slip from two hundred
fifty dollars to around twenty-six dollars a share, a paper
loss in the billions. But like Multicity, it has an earth-based
business plan. WebMethods, turned profitable in the last quarter,
has new partnerships and continues to hire.
Phillip Merrick (Chief Executive Officer, WebMethods): Everyone
knows that the number one reason we're here is to build a great
business and if we focus on that, everything else will take
care of itself.
Leshan: For good companies, there may actually be some advantages
to the current environment, says the CEO of Multicity.com.
It is much easier to hire good people, there is lower turnover
among those good people, the technology that you need to go
out and buy, it may be a little cheaper, and a lot of your competitors
are gone.
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"It's the future of the Internet...."
Red Herring Magazine |
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| "Multicity offers an excellent chat
experience..." |
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