Mr. Jacob: The Jacob Internet Fund was started in 1999 during a period when Internet and technology companies were really starting to do extraordinarily well in the marketplace. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, in 2000, we had a significant correction in the Internet and technology space. Even though many of the companies that we invested in ended up surviving that period, it clearly was a very difficult period and one in which a lot of smaller companies had a difficult time surviving. It really was a period where we saw the birth and then the growing pains of a lot of these companies. This has been our area of expertise since the Internet spawned all these new companies back in the 1990s.
TWST: What is the structure of the Fund? Are all the stocks Internet-related?
Mr. Jacob: Yes. The Jacob Internet Fund (JAMFX) is a public open-end mutual
fund. The Fund invests in companies that derive either a large majority of their
revenue from the Internet today or expect to in the near future. It really
covers a very wide range of companies even beyond, I would argue, the
traditional technology sector. Over time, we've generally owned somewhere
between 40 and 50 stocks in the Fund. Today, we own a little less than 40, so we
tend to be somewhat concentrated but we really try to take a long-term
perspective in the companies we invest in and try to really concentrate our
assets in those particular companies that we think have the potential to do the
best.
Tickers included in this excerpt: EBAY, ELNK, GOOG, MSFT, SFLY, SNDK, YHOO
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