Looks like it is getting closer!!!
PointCast's CEO Choice
Sets The Stage For IPO
By Steven Vonder Haar
October 29, 1997 2:22 PM PST
Inter@ctive Week
In an executive hiring that appears to set the
stage for an initial stock offering, PointCast Inc.
last week named former Pacific Bell President
David Dorman to head its day-to-day
operations.
Dorman's hiring brings renewed credibility to
PointCast (www.pointcast.com), a high-profile
provider of push technology services that had
fallen silent in recent months as the one-time
fever pitch of hype surrounding the push
business subsided.
In tapping Dorman, PointCast likely will grab
new attention in much the same way that tiny
Netscape Communications Corp. did when it
hired AT&T Wireless Services Inc. executive
Jim Barksdale to be its president in early 1995.
Dorman, 43, most recently an executive vice
president at SBC Communications Inc., had
been president of PacBell before SBC's
acquisition of Pacific Telesis Group earlier this
year. He essentially has traded managing a
$9.5 billion telecommunications company with a
work force of 50,000 for heading an Internet
start-up that employs 250.
"I'm not an idiot," Dorman said. "This is a
company that carries the same type of potential
of companies like @Home [Inc.] and Yahoo!
[Inc.] that already have been given high
valuations in the [stock] market. This is a
company on a solid growth track."
Dorman declined to say how quickly PointCast
plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO) of
stock, saying that decision must be evaluated
and made by the company's board.
However, industry sources said PointCast
bypassed offers to sell to Rupert Murdoch's
News Corp in March in a proposed deal worth
more than $400 million because, in part, it had
its eye on an IPO.
Dorman takes the place of 34-year-old
PointCast co-founder Chris Hassett, who will
become chairman. Hassett said in June that the
company was searching for a new chief
executive with broader management
experience.
With Dorman onboard, PointCast will have a
top-flight manager likely to appeal to Wall Street
investors.
Dorman, who sits on the board of 3Com Corp.
with Barksdale, acknowledged the parallels in
their careers.
"We've both been attracted by the same thing:
the chance to grow something," Dorman said.
Dorman: 'Solid growth' |
