As Year Wears On, Less and Less Green for NBCi's Peacock

Things are bad in the Internet advertising business, of course. But at NBC Internet (NBCI), they're worse than they look.

As NBCi, like other Internet companies, struggles to generate cash from its operations, an unsettling trend is occurring: A growing percentage of that revenue -- more than 36% in its latest quarter -- isn't cash at all. Rather, NBCi is taking much of this revenue in the form of advertising on other media or in other companies' stock. Not only that, but the value of that stock appears to have plummeted in the recent market downturn, thus looming as a future writedown for NBCi. Though it beat estimates in its latest fiscal quarter, its barter revenue doesn't paint as pretty a picture.

NBCi's stock, 39.2% of which is held by NBC and related companies, fell 19 cents Friday to close at $3.13, a new closing low. The stock's high was $106.13, on Jan. 27.

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