SIGHTINGS



Heaven's Gate Figure
Is Internet Millionaire
By Paul Tharp
New York Post Online Edition
www.nypost.com
6-27-99



 
An ex-felon and central figure in the Heaven's Gate cult suicide is the latest Internet millionaire.
 
He's Nicholas Matzorkis, 36, founder of US Search.com, a five-year-old company that began trading yesterday in a mixed day for new Internet public offerings.
 
US Search, which boasts it can find anyone in American using public records, found little support among Wall Street investors, skidding more than 22 percent to 615/16, off 21/16.
 
Even though it was comparatively a flop, the IPO enriched Matzorkis by nearly $12.7 million.
 
Matzorkis rose to sudden fame two years ago after he made the grisly discovery of the 39 cult suicide victims in Los Angeles. He employed 15 of them as World Wide Web page designers for US Search.
 
But the notoriety turned sour after Ohio authorities recognized him on TV as a fugitive they had sought for seven years for an old auto theft conviction he ducked in Cleveland.
 
The Beverly Hills entrepreneur was jailed briefly and allowed to serve his 1989 felony conviction with community service. But it nearly ruined his company, which hasn't turned a profit. It posted a $6.8 million loss on $9.2 million revenue last year.
 
He sold control last year to two movie producers, Peter Locke and Don Kushner, and gave up his president's post of US Search and a board seat. Matzorkis retained the title of Senior Strategist at a salary of $175,000 a year. His 1.8 million shares, or 10.4 percent of the company, are held in a trust by Rockefeller scion, Nick Rockefeller. The trust votes its shares in line with Kushner and Locke, producers of movies such the new release, "Picking Up the Pieces," starring Sharon Stone and Woody Allen.
 
Another 'Net IPO, Juniper Networks, came out a huge winner.
 
Juniper, in the marketplace just six months selling Internet routers, more than tripled in its first trading day, settling at 98, up 64 on volume of 7.6 million shares.
 
Another IPO winner was Stamps.com Inc., which wants to sell postage over the Internet. It rose 24 percent to 1311/16, up 211 16.
 
The year-old company has raked up $7.9 million in debt and doesn't have any revenue yet because the U.S. Postal Service hasn't yet approved its application to resell postage electronically.
 
Stamps.com also was sued last week by postage meter giant Pitney Bowes on patent infringement claims.
 
The man who has run Stamps.com since last fall is John Payne, whose shares are valued at $20.5 million. The last company he headed, a wireless software firm, Airmedia, filed for bankruptcy protection this year.





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