Another indication that Spanish-speaking portals are a hot sector:
dailynews.yahoo.com
Saturday November 20 3:55 AM ET
Argentine Internet Network Files for U.S. IPO
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - El Sitio Inc., an Argentine Internet network aimed at Latin American and U.S. speakers of Spanish and Portuguese, on Friday filed for an initial public offering of common stock in the United States.
The Buenos Aires-based company, which currently has country Web sites for Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, the United States and Uruguay, plans to offer 8.2 million shares in a projected price range of $11-$13 per share.
Based on the middle of that range, El Sitio, which means 'the site,' expects to make about $89 million after expenses, which it plans to use to fund sales and marketing activities, develop new services and for general corporate and working capital requirements.
El Sitio, whose registered users totaled about 291,567 people in July 1999 from 54,132 in June 1998, has applied to trade the shares on Nasdaq under the symbol (NasdaqSC:LCTO - news), according to the company's prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
If there is big demand for the 8.2 million shares, which represent a 21.2 percent stake, the underwriters of the IPO, co-managed by Credit Suisse First Boston and Lehman Brothers, have an option to buy 1.230 million more shares.
El Sitio, located online at elsitio.com for all of its Spanish Web sites and at osite.com.br for the Portuguese ones, said there is a large and growing market for Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking audiences in Latin America and the United States for content, connectivity and electronic commerce.
Some of the company's advertisers include Nortel Networks Corp. (Toronto:NT.TO - news) (NYSE:NT - news), the Canadian communications gear giant, and Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news), the leading U.S. computer chip maker.
Its major competitors in most of Latin America and the United States include StarMedia Network Inc. (NasdaqNM:STRM - news) and Terra Networks SA (NasdaqNM:TRRA - news), as well as Spanish and/or Portuguese versions of Yahoo! Inc. (NasdaqNM:YHOO - news) and America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news).
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