Linmor looks to second public offering
By Steve Ladurantaye
Ottawa Business Journal - March 7, 2000
Linmor Inc. has already been through the IPO drill, but on Tuesday morning announced it would
repeat the process in a bid to raise more cash. But this time it has something going for it besides
Internet management - Linux.
"The company has filed a preliminary prospectus with applicable provincial securities
commissions in respect of a proposed public offering of common shares to be issued from
treasury," the company said in a statement.
Linmor develops proactive performance management solutions for handling Internet
infrastructure. Its flagship product Nebula provides network data used to manage Internet
systems with. The package is installed at companies around the world, including AT&T and MCI
WorldCom. Linmor's Linux solution enables carriers to manage the new breed of very large,
complex networks. This is part of Linmor's aim to be the leading performance management
software supplier to DSL carriers.
Linmor stock took off in early December after the company announced that its product line was
ported into the Linux operating system, posting a 950 per cent from its open of 40 cents to trade
for $3.80.
"Our phone is ringing off the hook, U.S. investors are calling like crazy," said Linmor
spokesperson Gail Oliver at the time. "It's been nuts."
The company was incorporated in 1995, and trades on the CDNX under the symbol LIR. The
stock made its debut in 1998, and enjoyed mixed success in the early going. In Q1 1998, the
stock closed at a high of 40 cents. In the year, the lowest trading price was 5 cents in the third
quarter. Since then, the stock was stagnate at penny status.
But the tech stock bonanza that has gripped the market has sent the shares up 783.33 per cent
in the last year. Its 52-week low was 13 cents, while its high was $4.25. It closed on Monday at
$3.25.
The prospectus doesn't provide share price information, but does say that 2/3 of the proceeds
will be used as general working capital, and that the remainder will be earmarked for research
and development.
This fully marketed offering is to be underwritten by a syndicate composed of Yorkton Securities
Inc. and Griffiths McBurney & Partners. The price of the common shares to be offered will be
determined at the time of closing. |
