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KISS frontman propels Intertainmentshares up the charts(RTGAM)
SHIRLEY WON
Gene Simmons, founder of the rock bandKISS, has given shares of Intertainment Media Inc. a shot in the arm afterbecoming a pitchman for the Toronto-based firm’s social media and translationwebsite.
Intertainment hit a 52-week intradayhigh of $3.35 a share Tuesday before sliding to close up 10 cents at $2.25 asnearly one million shares changed hands. The company, which has reported noearnings and no significant revenue to date, has seen its stock gain a whopping2,150 per cent this year.
“It’s getting a little crazy,” saysPeter Hodson, a portfolio manager at Sprott Inc. who bought Intertainmentshares between 50 and 70 cents a share in early February.
There is “chatter” on the Street thatMr. Simmons plans to soon do a demonstration with his fans around the world onIntertainment’s Ortsbo.com site so “that is perhaps what is driving the stock,”Mr. Hodson said. “ I am not a big KISS fan, but Gene has been veryentrepreneurial. He has turned a mediocre rock band into a worldwideconglomerate.”
Intertainment has gained $1.58 a shareover 11 sessions after Mr. Simmons agreed to become a shareholder and also apromoter for Ortsbo. The website says it enables users to hold online chats inmore than 50 languages, with immediate translation of their text messages.
The stock has gained momentum after thecompany announced earlier this week that it had achieved a “major milestone,”reaching 12.2 million unique visitors in less than 10 months.
“There may be some very large buyers whowant a piece of this social media opportunity before it’s too late,” Mr. Hodsonsuggested. “But it’s exceptionally hard to value, and you don’t know how muchmoney is going to be ultimately made down the road.”
Intertainment chief executive officerDavid Lucatch said that he convinced Mr. Simmons to get onboard earlier thisyear after persuading the entertainer, who couldn’t speak English when heemigrated from Israel to the United States as a boy, to try the site.
“Gene typed a message to one of my staffin Hungarian,” Mr. Lucatch recalled. “My staff member received it in simplifiedChinese over Ortsbo. She typed it back in Spanish, and he received it inEnglish … We were using four different dialects in a single conversation, andhe was blown away.”
Hedge fund manager Steven Palmer ofAlphaNorth Asset Management Inc. began buying shares of Intertainment at 5cents a share through private placements as early as 2009. “It remains to beseen whether it will continue to grow at a rate comparable to Facebook,” hesaid. “That is what is getting people excited.”
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