Iris; something on JNPR from Barrons. These pricey stocks are out of my range <g>
Then there are the follow-on offerings, which can provide convenient ways for venture capitalists to monetize their gains. Consider Juniper Networks, of Mountain View, California, which sells Internet infrastructure equipment to big communications companies. Juniper's initial public offering came out in late June at 34 and closed at 98 7/8 on the first day of trading. In the months that followed, its shares zoomed as high as 234.
But for a while last week it looked as if Juniper's stock was burning up in re-entry. It slipped from 218 to 169 1/2 before recovering to end the week at 193 1/4. Contributing to the mini-stampede was a registration statement filled with insider sales.
Management remains steadfast. Scott Kriens, Juniper's president, is hanging on to all 3,153,485 of his shares (a tidy package worth $609 million). But some of the outfits that financed Juniper in the early development stages apparently think now is a good time to bail out.
Juniper Networks' prospectus shows that of a maximum 5.75 million shares to be offered later this month, only 1.5 million are being sold by the company. Investors Lucent Technologies and Newbridge Networks, of Ottawa, plan to sell 1.525 million shares apiece. And MCI WorldCom's Venture Fund plans to sell 250,000 shares. At Friday's closing price, that means MCI would rake in $48.3 million, while Lucent would pocket $295 million. The windfall would mean even more for the smaller Canadian company. Think of it: Yankee dollars.
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