Good press for WITC....another up day tomorrow.
Hot' Juniper.com prices 17% above range
Internet.com adds to strong finish to busy IPO week
By Steve Gelsi, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 7:21 PM ET Jun 24, 1999
Net Stocks Internet Daily
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Juniper.com is slated to finish the parade of
dot-com IPOs this week with a flourish Friday after the Internet
networking specialist priced 17 percent above its initial price range.
Juniper.com, Internet.com and others cap off a crowded IPO week, seen as one of, if not the busiest, of the year as new issues rushed to market before the end of the quarter.
This week, several; Internet firms opened well above their offering price despite choppiness in the market at large.
Juniper.com's (JNPR: news, msgs) lead
underwriter Goldman Sachs (GS: news, msgs)
priced the company's 4.8 million shares at $34 late
Thursday. The Mountain View, Calif. firm lost $31 million on revenue of
$3.8 million last year. It's expected to rake in $163.2 million.
"It's a hot deal," Cantor Fitzgerald trader Vincent Slavin said of
Juniper.com. "There's strong demand."
Wall Street's desire for another Internet infrastructure player in the vein of
Cisco (CSCO: news, msgs) pushed Juniper.com's price range to $28 to $30 on Wednesday, up from $21 to $23. Wit Capital (WITC: news,msgs) is also offering IPO participation to members.
Richard Petersen of Securities Data Corp. said the buzz around Juniper.com is that it's making "the next generation router" for the Internet.
"In a world where speed matters, their claim is to have a fast product," he said. "
After the bell on Thursday, Internet.com which will trade under the ticker
INTM priced at $14 a share, well above its $10 to $12 range.
The Westport, Conn. networker of business-to-business Web sites for
Net players lost $2.7 million last year on revenue of $3.5 million.
Lead underwriter US Bancorp Piper Jaffray Inc. plans to raise about $48
million.
Jekyll and Hyde
On Thursday, the IPO market took on a Jekyll and Hyde persona as
investors cheered Software.com's offering but cooled on
GreenMountain.com.
The love fest began with Santa Barbara,
Calif.-based Software.com (SWCM: news, msgs)
which opened at 22 5/8, after pricing at $15 a
share Shares lost ground during the day to close at
18 1/16.
The developer of messaging software applications
for Internet service providers originally projected a
price range of $10 to $12 on May 21.
Although the company showed a loss of $8.2
million last year, it raked in $25.6 million in revenue
and drew a high-profile underwriter, CS First
Boston.
CyberSource
San Jose, Calif.-based CyberSource (CYBS: news, msgs) priced at $11
per share, above its original $8 to $10 range. It opened at 16 1/4. Merrill
Lynch was the underwriter. The seller of real-time e-commerce
transaction services raised $46 million.
The stock closed at 13 9/16 on volume of 5.9 million shares.
QuePasa.com
Phoenix-based, Spanish-language Internet search engine QuePasa.com
(PASA: news, msgs) was a happening IPO that jumped above its offering
price of $12.
Spicing up the IPO market for the day, it opened at 18 3/4. It finished the
day strong with a close of 17 1/8 on volume of about 6 million shares.
Lead underwriter Cruttenden Roth helped the Web site raise $55.2
million in the offering, which priced at the upper end of its $10 to $12
range.
GreenMountain.com
Even as Software.com, CyberSource and QuePasa.com turned nicer for
investors, GreenMountain.com ran into troubles.
The alternative energy specialist cut the size of its offering to 12 million
shares from 25 million shares and decreased its price range to $9 from
$11 to $13 with Prudential Securities as the lead underwriter.
GreenMountain.com posted revenue of $1.5 million
and showed a loss of $46 million last year.
Now it looks like the South Burlington, Vt.,
company will pin its hopes on roughly $108 million
in IPO money instead of the $250 million it
originally eyed when it debuts under the ticker:
GMTN.
$400 million IPO postponed
Strategic Timber Trust postponed its $400 million
IPO on Thursday. The New London, N.H. firm
buys, owns and manages timberlands and sells
lumber. It also owns about 448,000 acres in
California, Louisiana, Oregon and Washington. The
company filed its IPO on Jan. 27 with a price range
of $19 to $21.
Lower Orbit
On Wednesday, shares of Ariba (ARBA: news, msgs) soared 260
percent in its first day of trading and chip maker Globespan
Semiconductor (GSPN: news, msgs) nearly tripled. Also, online broker
TD Waterhouse Securities [s twe] had a strong start for its whopping $1
billion offering. See full story.
On Thursday, gravity gripped these latest IPO satellites, spinning them
into lower orbits. Ariba fell 12 1/8 to 77 7/8; Globespan dropped 2 5/16
to 40 and TD Waterhouse declined 1 3/8 to 24 1/4. |
