50% haircut on CNET

April 26, 2006

CNET stock has fallen something like 20% since the earnings announcement on Monday. But based on the average strike price for my few remaining options, that’s a 50% haircut in terms of my proceeds should I sell the stock.

In real dollar terms it’s not much, I don’t have that many remaining options. But percentage-wise that’s pretty steep, and normally I might have just held on hoping for some lift later in the year. You know, the old rising tide (from Yahoo and Google) lifts all boats metaphor.

But the clock is ticking–I’m no longer an employee so if I don’t sell soon I will lose these options entirely. After reading some of the analysis about their prospects, I decided I’d just go ahead and pull the trigger. As of late this morning I neither own any CNET shares, nor have options to buy any shares.

Feels weird after all these years, to know I have zero financial stake in CNET. There’s a certain finality to it all, I’m feeling surprisingly sad this morning about it.