By Victoria Ho

REMINISCENT of the dotcom bust, a technology start-up was in the spotlight last week for its tumbling share price, which saw investors bailing.

Catalist-listed Artivision Technologies' stock took a real pummelling over the last fortnight since it disclosed a full-year loss of $5.7 million and negative equity of $965,000.

Its price, which shot up to a high of 29 cents from 4.5 cents over the course of a month, dropped progressively to a low of 13 cents later in the week, before recovering 69 per cent to close at 22 cents on Friday.

The roller-coaster ride that its stock appears to be on points to the general lack of understanding of the company's move to jump on the online advertising bandwagon.

The initial enthusiasm generated came right after it announced a new product called Advision.

The company had blamed its main line (which produces video management technologies) for the fall in revenue, citing strong competition.

Advision was a departure from that, promising new revenue in the lucrative online advertising market.