Stock winners and losers both look like bad bets

Akamai Technologies Inc., located in Cambridge, Mass., helps deliver content and monitor traffic on the Internet. This is a stock in which fortunes have been made, and lost.

High of more than $327 a share in 1999

From a high of more than $327 a share in 1999, Akamai fell to less than $1 a share in 2002. Since at that time it has regained traction and risen to about $50. The good-company, bad-stock syndrome applies here. I consider the shares overpriced at 51 times revenues and nearly nine times revenue.

Then there's Salesforce.com Inc., which is as popular with investors as Akamai was 11 years ago. A leader in cloud computing for businesses, Salesforce saw its revenue grow to $1.1 billion last year from $51 million in fiscal 2003.

Computing that involves storing files and programs on a host's servers is here to stay. It allows salespeople in different cities to share notes and observations easily. But I can give you three good reasons not to invest in Salesforce.

Yes, I know dairy products, Dean's specialty, are supposed to be a steady business that easily can support a heavy debt load. Nevertheless experience suggests that debt never matters - until it does.