Navarre Shares Rise as Company Plans NetRadio Public Offering
New Hope, Minnesota, Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Navarre Corp. shares more than doubled as the software and music distributor said it's preparing to sell shares of its NetRadio Corp. unit to the public.
Navarre shares rose 4 11/16 to 16 7/8 in midafternoon trading of 27.2 million shares, making it the most active stock in U.S. markets. Earlier, shares of the New Hope, Minnesota-based company touched 27.
Navarre first said in July that it would sell shares in NetRadio, which broadcasts more than 100 channels of programming on the Internet, then canceled those plans because of poor market conditions. Navarre is reviving its plans after the successful initial public offerings of other Internet companies, such as auctioneer eBay Inc. and bookseller Computer Literacy Inc.
''Market conditions are favorable again, so we applied the pressure on it again,'' said Terri Bonoff, Navarre vice president of marketing. She declined to say when the company would file for an initial public offering or provide further details.
Navarre owns 85 percent of NetRadio, and ValueVision International Inc., which runs home shopping television programs, owns 15 percent.
With today's surge, Navarre shares have risen more than fourfold since Wednesday, when it was first reported that the company hired an investment bank to take NetRadio public soon. ValueVision shares were unchanged at 5 11/16 today.
Navarre ''has not derived significant revenue'' from NetRadio and has incurred losses from the network, according to its 10-K report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed on June 29.
15:01:50 11/30/1998 |
