This column is for investors willing to take more risk and potentially receive more reward.  The stocks mentioned in this column are not recommended to buy or sell.  They're brought to your attention so you can investigate them further to determine if they fit your risk profile.  Most of the stocks will have less than $1 billion of market capitalization, have more volatility than other stocks, and oftentimes no earnings.  And some will have tremendous stories.

September 4, 2008 - EasyLink Services International Corp. (ESIC-NASDAQ)
provides comprehensive messaging services and e-commerce solutions worldwide. It creates, deploys, and manages the electronic exchange of business documents. The company provides e-commerce solutions to connect businesses with their trading communities, through its value added network (VAN), desktop software, hosted applications, and managed services.

EasyLink Service International's customers include service providers, retailers, manufacturers, distributors, and transportation providers in various industries, including apparel, consumer packaged goods, financial, grocery, media, pharmaceutical, publishing, retail, third-party logistics, and transportation. The company was founded in 1991 as Infosafe Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Internet Commerce Corporation in 1998. Further, it changed the name to EasyLink Services International Corporation in 2007. EasyLink Services International is based in Norcross, Georgia.

Whether it was the last name change or better sales efforts, EasyLink saw revenues climb from $21.9 million last year to a projected $92.24 million this year ($68.3 million is already on the books), and analysts see $107 million next year. Clearly, something good is going on here. That's an improvement of 346% in one year.

Earnings are ramping as well. They were negative in 2004 at minus 30 cents a share. The next year, they were negative 1 cent a share. Finally, after years of reporting losses, the company came in with 9 cents a share in 2006, followed by 11 cents last year. This year analysts project 44 cents a share and next year, 63 cents. Earnings for the fourth quarter (fiscal year ends in October) will be out around September 16 and are expected to be 11 cents a share. For the third quarter, the company reported 17 cents a share, up from 2 cents a share in the same quarter last year.

The stock trades at $3.70 a share as of this writing. It's been in a narrow range over the last 2 years, trading between $2.18 and $4.75. In 2000, before every dot com hit the poverbial wall, someone bought the stock at $96 a share. In the same year, it plummeted to $2.36. It's that kind of investment. Only the most daring need read further.

There's a lawsuit against EasyLink, filed by J2 Global Communications. It claims patent infringement by EasyLink on two of J2's patents. Here's what the company said about it: "We are looking into this complaint and taking all measures necessary to ensure that we resolve this matter in a timely manner," says Thomas J. Stallings, CEO of EasyLink. Sounds like a good course of action. Notice he doesn't deny the allegation. This could be costly to the company if it loses or has to pay royalties to J2.

More numbers: Market Cap is $94 million with 25.1 million shares outstanding. Return on equity was a robust 25.8% for the last twelve months. Return on Assets was 10.92%. Price to Sales ratio is 1.3. Price to Book is 1.92. There's $27.18 million in cash on the books. Debt to Equity ratio is 1.07 with a Current Ratio of 2.612. Book value is $1.98. There is no dividend.

EasyLink is gaining market share, growing revenues and profits. But it has a lawsuit to deal with. That will take management time, and if lost, will most likely hurt profitability in the short run. Being aggressive sometimes means waiting for the right time to buy. If you dig deeper and like what you find, this may be a stock to follow and when the outcome of the lawsuit is known, then an order can be placed.

- Company Web site: www.icc.net

- Ted Allrich