An excerpt from Barrons May 26th mentions "the" IPO and how @home would be valued at over 760 million dollars at its offering. Can anyone justify this valuation for @home when other ISP's are nowhere near this?
Stocks Sprint to New Records As the Fed Leaves
Well Enough Alone
Eric J. Savitz
Though Amazon remains controversial, its success in finding buyers for the IPO has attracted the attention of numerous Internet start-ups planning to take the same route. Concentric Network Corp., a Cupertino, Calif., Internet service provider, filed earlier this month for an initial offering that would value the company at $128.7 million. More closely watched will be the proposed IPO for Home, which provides high-speed Internet access to consumers and businesses. The Home offering would raise $56 million, and value the two-year-old start-up at a stunning $760.2 million. So far, Home has just 5,000 paying subscribers, but it does have high-powered investors, including Motorola, Bay Networks, Rogers Cablesystems, Tele-Communications, Cox Communications, Comcast and Kleiner Perkins.
As far as current Internet plays go, Simons advises sticking to companies that can benefit from the Internet, but aren't dependent on it. In that category, he suggests CUC International, which is stepping up its online retailing activities, and Intuit, the leader in personal finance software. Promising plays also include Harbinger, Sterling Commerce and Edify, which facilitate electronic commerce.
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