Transmeta's Stock Offering May Buck a Cooling Trend nytimes.com
Or, it may not, says this story from last Wed. NYT.
But Transmeta has high expectations for a company that has yet to see
products with its semiconductors hit the market. The date of its offering,
which has Morgan Stanley Dean Witter as the lead underwriter, has
not been set, nor has a price range. But Transmeta's initial plan is to raise
$200 million for 10 percent of its company, according to people close to
the concern, giving it an implied valuation of $2 billion. At that price, it
would need about $128 million in annual sales to achieve a price-to-sales
ratio comparable to that of Intel.
Though they don't exactly go into how sales for a fabless company aren't exactly equivalent to Intel sales. Hard to get those juicy 60% gross margins on chips that are fabbed by somebody else, and aren't aimed at the high end to start with.
For now, though, Alexander Cheung, manager of the hedge fund Long
Bow Capital Partners, believes a recent deal by Sony to use Transmeta
chips in some laptops will be news enough to drive a lofty offering.
"That's what I.P.O.s are all about," he added. "People looking for a ray
of hope."
Cheers, Dan. |
