Rupert,
Thanks again for a very informative post.
I went to San Diego this weekend (actually Del Mar) to celebrate WFIIs incredible IPO (for them and me).
This is what the San Diego tribune wrote about the company:
WIRELESS NETWORKS FIRM SOARS IN TRADING
Local company's stock closes at $62 on first day
Massih Tayebi, chief executive of Wireless Facilities, likes to say his company is San Diego's "best-kept secret."
Wireless Facilities is a secret no more.
The company went public yesterday, and on its first day of trading the stock climbed more than 313 percent to close at $62.
"We're all celebrating," a Wireless Facilities receptionist said yesterday. "It's so exciting."
Starting with an initial public offering price of $15, Wireless Facilities zoomed past $40 by midday and never looked back. The company trades on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol WFII. Credit Suisse First Boston was the lead underwriter.
Wireless Facilities raised $60 million through its offering. The company had 39 million shares outstanding. Volume was a hefty 14.1 million shares traded.
Wireless Facilities designs, builds and manages wireless networks for the likes of AT&T, Siemens, Lucent, Qualcomm and Ericsson.
The market for wireless access services is expected to generate $7.8 billion in revenues by 2002, according to market research firm Dataquest.
As the market expands, wireless carriers are being forced to upgrade their network technologies continually and expand into new geographic regions to remain competitive and satisfy the increasing demand for wireless service. Rather than build their own networks, carriers are increasingly looking to outsource the work - a niche Wireless Facilities seeks to fill.
One-third of Wireless Facilities' business comes from international markets. The company reported in federal securities filings that it plans to increase its international presence.
Wireless Facilities' first-day results make it the most successful local IPO this year, even though it went public with far less fanfare than San Diego-based online music distributor MP3.com or high-tech enterprise JNI Inc.
JNI closed last month at just above $42 per share the first day of trading, more than double the offering price of $19.
MP3.com hit the market in July, going from $28 a share to $105 virtually in an instant, eventually closing on its first day trading at $63.31 1/4.
Unlike many of the so-called "dot.com" enterprises going public, Wireless Facilities is making money. The company reported net income of $2.8 million for the six months ended June 30, on revenues of $33.1 million.
"I think the most important part of the story is pofitability", said Ben Holmes, president of ipoPros.com, an online research firm based in Boulder, CO. "They're edging on 10 percent net (profit) margin. That's a significant margin and it makes them unusual - it puts them in a unique category of IPO companies that are profitable."
Tayebi and his brother, Masood, Wireless Facilities' president, own 47.7 percent of the company's outstanding common stock, making their collective paper worth more than $1 billion by yesterday's closing bell.
Other members of the Tayebi family own about 11.9 percent of common stock outstanding, giving the Tayebi clan majority control of the now-public company.
"We are extremely pleased about the completion of our IPO and the beginning of our first day of trading." Massih Tayebi said in a statement. "This is the fulfillment of many years of hard work, and we are excited for our employees and shareholders."
Wireless Facilities started operation in 1995 and migrated from the East Coast to work in "Telecom Valley," as San Diego is sometimes called. In January 1998, the company had 83 employees. As of June 30, it employed 508, many of whom have doctorate degrees.
While the company reported in Securities and Exchange Commission documents that one of its challenges will be hiring and retaining highly trained employees, yesterday's IPO is likely to make the task easier.
Wireless Facilities operates "from a position of strenght," Holmes said. "Their product is human capital and talent. With a successful IPO like this, giving IPO employees a chance to become wealthy, it makes it easier for the company to attract talent and keep talent they have.
"It seems like a pretty good outcome for them."
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Saturday, Nov. 6, 1999
I thought after all Rupert E and Gordon Gekko have done for me in reseaching this world-class company, typing this was the least I could do in return.
Enjoy,
Rico |
