The Hurtin' Thirty: Part 5 By James J. Cramer 8/24/01 3:40 PM ET

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Editor's note: This is the fifth installment in Jim Cramer's weeklong series on "The Hurtin' Thirty," a motley crew of stocks you should sell now. Be sure to check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Ah, at last, the end of the Hurtin' Thirty. I found myself waxing nostalgic today thinking, alas, how much wild money was made with these last six, how much out-of-control, out-of-sight, moola was made during the heyday of these names.

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The Hurtin' Thirty: Part 1

The Hurtin' Thirty: Part 2

The Hurtin' Thirty: Part 3

The Hurtin' Thirty: Part 4

Those days are over.

Enough nostalgia. Sycamore (SCMR:Nasdaq - news - commentary), of all of the names on the Hurtin' Thirty list, probably has the best chance of making it. When Matt "Schemer" Jacobs (everybody on Wall Street calls Sycamore Schemer because of its SCMR symbol) and I talked to John Chambers last year during the very peak week of demand, he had nothing but praise for Sycamore's switches. Unfortunately, praise does not translate into orders and orders have declined drastically for Sycamore's phone network switches. With no sign of a bottom. To own this one is to wait through a skein of terrible earnings reports for a possible buyout, and that's not how I like to play with my capital.

McLeod (MCLD:Nasdaq - news - commentary), or the Marshall, as we used to nickname it, seemed like one of the survivors way back. It seemed to be fully funded and to have a game plan. Alas, it isn't and it no longer has one. In the Darwinian world that is phone companies these days, McLeod is not the fittest, so it probably won't survive. If it does, you should own McLeod bonds, not stock, because the bondholders will take over the company.

Corvis (CORV:Nasdaq - news - commentary): Long-haul fiber-optic plays were the rage a year ago, now, I mean, hello, they grow on trees. Worse, they fall from trees like dead leaves come the fall. Maybe someone will buy Corvis one day but I bet it's for less than it sells for.

Ariba (ARBA:Nasdaq - news - commentary): We used to yell out "Ariba, Ariba" whenever we traded this one, which was the fastest business-to-business play to have multimillion dollar revenues. Alas, it turns out that procurement plays were a dime a dozen, which is soon what these stocks might actually trade for. I used to love Keith Krach, the former CEO; he seemed to be sitting on top of the world. Big fall from that perch, believe me.

Redback Networks (RBAK:Nasdaq - news - commentary): When every phone company was up to its neck in DSL orders, this provider of subscriber management equipment reigned as king of the DSL plays. It was proprietary, unlike Copper Mountain, and was loved by the bankers. All of that went away with the losing of the DSL wars to cable modem. Redback was the ultimate casualty. Don't feel bad, management bailed out of millions of shares at much higher levels!

BroadVision (BVSN:Nasdaq - news - commentary): When major corporations feared that they were about to be "Amazoned," meaning that some competitor was going to Internet-ize their business and take it away from them, BroadVision got the call. Now, however, who cares? I mean, do you ever hear anyone say, "Hey, are you guys on the Net?" Like, big deal. BroadVision got more than its fair share of orders when orders were given. But orders aren't given much any more. What a burned-out meteor!

Hurtin' Thirty The last of the batch to jettison
Name	Current Market Cap (millions)	Closing Price on Thursday	Change YTD (%)	Earnings Per Share (EPS)	Comments
Sycamore Networks (SCMR:Nasdaq - news - commentary)	1558.89	5.28	-84.70	0.13	Switches to make phone lines faster.
McLeod USA (MCLD:Nasdaq - news - commentary)	1098.70	1.53	-87.54	-0.95	Another alternative phone company.
Corvis (CORV:Nasdaq - news - commentary)	936.26	2.25	-89.08	-1.80	Long-haul fiber play when the long-haul buildout seems pretty complete.
Ariba (ARBA:Nasdaq - news - commentary)	827.54	2.85	-94.03	-4.10	Business-to-business procurement play. Once made money.
Redback Networks (RBAK:Nasdaq - news - commentary)	$786.27	$4.03	-87.54	$-8.68	Equipment ideal for a giant DSL win; DSL lost.
BroadVision (BVSN:Nasdaq - news - commentary)	799.52	2.35	-75.70	-0.62	Need to build a Web presence fast? I didn't think so. BroadVision didn't know that, though.
Read Cramer's first installment of stocks to dump:	TUT Systems, Ask Jeeves, Mercator Software, Blue Martini Software, Westell Technologies, VerticalNet
Read Cramer's second installment:	Netopia, Art Technology Group, Copper Mountain Networks, VA Linux Systems, Avici Systems, Xcelera
Read Cramer's third installment:	Turnstone Systems, Internet Capital Group, Microstrategy, Entrust, New Focus, Portal Software
Read Cramer's fourth installment:	Metromedia Fiber Network, Akamai Technologies, InfoSpace, Commerce One, XO Communications, Exodus Communications
Source: Bloomberg.

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