7th Street.com Stock Soars After AOL Deal

Shares of 7th Street.com (Nasdaq: SEVL) soared more than 80 percent on Friday after the multimedia training company announced a deal with America Online, and the stock is rocketing today, as well.

7th Street.com, which sells downloadable tutorials for well-known programs on its Tutorials.com Web site, will become an anchor tenant in AOL’s Computing and WorkPlace Channels.

Tutorials.com offers more than 150 courses on products including Windows 98, Office 97, PhotoShop and Lotus Notes 4.5, along with training for programming languages like HTML and Visual Basic. The Web site also offers self-improvement courses that help develop leadership, time management and interview skills. Tutorials.com is rather comprehensive. It even offers courses that will teach you how to use an Internet browser and e-mail, although you have to wonder if anybody who uses AOL or any other Internet service provider to access Tutorials.com would need that.

After the completion of each course, users can print a certificate indicating that they have successfully met all of the requirements of class.

“We see a tremendous opportunity for growth in the consumer online training market and we look forward to reaching AOL’s more than 16 million members,” said Stephen Gott, president and CEO of 7th Street.com. “Branding of this consumer service is a key component of our overall corporate strategy to be a dominant player in the e-learning and high impact Internet communications market.”

Frenzy Surrounding 7thStreet.com Stock

7th Street.com stock closed up 2-1/4 to 5 on Friday on volume of more than 20 million shares. The average daily volume of the stock is less than 900,000 shares. The stock was up more than 60 percent, and trading at more than 8 early today.

And there’s even more good news. “Business Week” magazine is reporting that numerous other big names are close to signing deals with 7th Street.com, including a blue-chip technology company, a large computer manufacturer, and Internet service providers.

7th Street.com was previously known as 7th Level. The name was changed on February 17 when 7th Level merged with privately held corporate training company Street Technologies.

“Our ongoing strategy is to create value for our shareholders by leveraging and vertically integrating our technology, starting with the strong base that Street has developed in the corporate training and consumer markets,” Donald Schupak, chairman of 7th Street.com, said at the time.

Schupak added that by the end of 1998, Street’s library included approximately 200 enhanced multimedia titles, and its distribution network consisted of more than 50 active resellers of its corporate training offerings, and several hundred Web sites selling its private labeled training to consumers.