WinStar Considering Options for Officecom, CEO Rouhana Says
New York, March 13 (Bloomberg) -- WinStar Communications Inc. is considering options for its Office.com Web site, which provides products and services to small and mid-sized businesses, WinStar Chief Executive William Rouhana Jr. said.
Options could include tracking stocks or an initial public offering. Last month, Rouhana said the company was ``not inclined to (issue a tracking stock),' but would consider it.
``We're going to have to make a decision pretty soon on what to do with that business,' he said at a Merrill Lynch & Co. conference in New York. He declined to say when a decision would be made.
The success of public offerings by rivals VerticalNet Inc. and Onvia.com Inc. forced WinStar to consider options for Office.com, Rouhana said. WinStar owns two-thirds of Office.com, and CBS Corp. owns the rest.
According to market researcher Cahners In-Stat Group, Office.com is the top small-business portal of some 3,000 surveyed, Rouhana said. Office.com, which offers news and information on more than 100 industries and professions, combines features of both Onvia.com and VerticalNet, he said.
Onvia.com, which went public March 1 at $21 a share, now has a market capitalization of $3.6 billion. ``Onvia has definitely caused me to rethink (Office.com),' Rouhana said. VerticalNet first sold shares in February 1999 at $16 each, and now has a market capitalization of $9 billion. |
