IPO week ahead: serving up
Akamai
By John E. Fitzgibbon Jr.
Redherring.com
October 23, 1999
The ghosts that normally haunt the securities markets in
October have not yet appeared this year. Given
current market conditions, there doesn't appear to be
any Halloween surprises between now and the end of
the month.
Against this backdrop, 18 new
issues are currently scheduled to
go door-to-door on Wall Street
this week. The volume is heavy,
with $2.67 billion expected to be
raised. However, the face of the
IPO Calendar is changing.
The calendar is no longer
dominated by Internet deals. There are only five
offerings on this week's launching pad that trace their
business models to the World Wide Web. The balance
of the week's offerings are generally technology deals,
such as network access (Allied Riser Communications),
software (Baltimore Technologies), semiconductors
(Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, a foreign
company), storage technology (JNI), wireless
communications (Triton PCS Holdings), and a few
non-technology IPOs.
But in keeping with this year's hot
deals, the Internet offerings are
expected to provide this week's
fireworks. Akamai Technologies
and JNI are among the hotter
offerings.
PICKS OF THE WEEK
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
(NYSE: MWD) plans to price
Akamai Technologies (proposed
Nasdaq symbol: AKAM) on
Thursday night for Friday's
trading. Based in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, the company provides a global content
delivery service that improves Web site speed and
protects against site crashes due to demand overloads.
According to IPO experts, this deal could be the next
member in the Redherring.com Hall of Fame. The
Street Poll rating is Red Hot.
Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (NYSE: DLJ) is bringing
JNI (proposed Nasdaq symbol: JNIC), which offers
storage-area network (SAN) products, to the public
market. The deal is to be priced on Tuesday for
Wednesday's trading. The company is a supplier of
Fibre Channel hardware and software products that
connect servers and data devices. This segment of the
IPO market has been super-hot in the recent weeks,
and this IPO is expected to follow the same path to
glory. The Redherring.com Street Poll rates the deal as
Red Hot.
Predictive Systems (proposed Nasdaq symbol: PRDS)
provides computer network consulting services.
BancBoston Robertson Stephens expects to price the
IPO on Thursday evening for Friday's trading. The
company is no "early-stage company." For the
six-month period ended June 30, 1999, it reported
revenues of $22.6 million, up from $9.5 million a year
ago and very close to the $25.9 million in revenue it
reported for the full-year period in 1998. The
company also reported operating profits of $180,000
for its 1999 first half. This deal is on everybody's want
list, and the Redherring.com Street Poll hears the deal
is Hot, and getting hotter.
Once again, all that is needed for the IPO Calendar to
live up to expectations is for the stock market to
escape the clutches of a seasonal October crash. |
