Monday, Oct 11 1999
WEAVING THE WEB
Leading the pack in terms of first-day performance was Interwoven. The developer of software for managing content on the Internet guzzled $54 million from the public trough with its IPO.
Prior to the offering, managing underwriters Credit Suisse First Boston, BancBoston Robertson Stephens, and Dain Rauscher Wessels increased the offering from 3 million to 3.15 million shares and jacked up the price from the $10 to $12 range to $17. Stock in the Sunnyvale, California-based company opened at $43, a 153 percent premium over the offer price. By the time trading ended, the stock had reached a day's high of $47.50 before closing at $41, for a 141 percent hike, on 5.4 million shares traded.
The company's timing was perfect because Internet software infrastructure plays are currently very hot items. International Data Corporation expects worldwide revenues for such "Web development life cycle management software" to shoot from $76 million in 1998 to $1.57 billion in 2003.
Other key players in that business include VIGNETTE!! (Nasdaq: VIGN) and FutureTense, which was recently acquired by Open Market (Nasdaq: OMKT). Analysts say all of these companies should have bright futures because few businesses currently employ content management software on their Web sites, but they will need to buy it in the future.
"You don't have to hire too many expensive webmasters, and you don't have to play around with HTML," says Harley Manning, research director at Forrester Research (Nasdaq: FORR), of the advantages in using such software. "You can automatically put content online."
Mr. Manning says that Interwoven, unlike its competitors, puts its entire focus on content management and is, thus, compatible with various types of hardware and software |
