Here's what CNBC had to say earlier...but I couldn't get in to post it till now...
KLP #40 GNET and #5 CHTR long
cnbc.com
Nov 9 1999 8:50AM ET
More on Nuthin But Net...
Charter Raises $3.23 Billion in IPO
by Corey Grice and Dawn Kawamoto
Staff Writers, CNET News.com
Special to CNBC.com
Charter Communications, a cable company owned by Microsoft
cofounder Paul
Allen, has raised $3.23 billion in an initial public offering scheduled to hit
the market
on Tuesday.
Charter sold 170 million shares for $19 each, the high end of the $17 to
$19
range that had been set by lead underwriter Goldman Sachs. Charter
shares
are expected to begin trading under the ticker "CHTR."
"I wouldn't be surprised if Charter's shares rise 100 to 150 percent on its
first
day," Jeff Hirschkorn, a senior analyst for IPO.com, said last week.
"Paul Allen
is building this company from the bottom up and he's doing it with
acquisitions."
The 170 million shares represent all the outstanding class A common
stock
outstanding. Allen will hold 50,000 shares of class B common stock,
which
gives him 10 voting rights for each share and 95 percent of all voting
rights. The
class B shares can later be converted to class A shares on a 1-for-1
basis.
Allen has earned a reputation as having made astute investments, which
are
handled through Vulcan Ventures. (Vulcan Ventures is an investor in
CNET,
publisher of News.com.)
Through Vulcan Ventures, Allen owns stakes in several high-tech
companies
including High Speed Access (HSA), Wink Communications,
WorldGate
Communications, and RCN. Allen recently combined several of those
properties
together with Charter and Go2Net to form Broadband Partners, a joint
venture
that will create an interactive-TV based broadband portal.
Since acquiring Charter, Allen has been on an acquisition binge gobbling
up
smaller and mid-sized cable operators primarily serving the "ex-urban"
regions
around major metropolitan markets.
When a handful of proposed mergers is finalized, Charter is expected to
be the
fourth-largest cable company in the nation serving more than 5 million
customers.
Allen plans to use Charter's cable networks to offer multi-channel video
programming, high-speed Internet access, local voice telephony, and
interactive
TV.
Charter generated revenues of $1.43 billion during the six-month period
ended
June 30 and it posted a loss from operations of $238.7 million.
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