LiquidNet : a 2007 IPO?
LiquidNet, institutions trade with each other directly and anonymously over the Internet, --- LiquidNet won't even consider an IPO for at least two years --- Note to IPO investors: Mark your 2007 calendars.
Website: liquidnet.com
04/26/05: A Second Wind for E-Finance Startups
Despite the success already achieved by online financial-services companies, a crop of newcomers aimed at special niches is thriving ---- Near the bottom of :
yahoo.businessweek.com
Some of the most interesting up-and-comers in financial services aren't public yet.
Consider LiquidNet Holdings, a six-year-old online marketplace that lets institutional investors trade large blocks of stock without revealing their activity to the entire stock market. Traditionally, an institution places a large buy or sell order for a stock with brokers, who broadcast the order to all market participants.
NO DAY TRADERS ALLOWED.
As news of the order disseminates, the stock price falls if the institution is selling or rises if it's buying. With LiquidNet, institutions trade with each other directly and anonymously over the Internet, preventing the stock price from moving against them. "We cut out the day traders, the hedge funds," says founder and CEO Seth Merrin.
LiquidNet is one of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. It says revenues have doubled every year since 2001. Last year, it was profitable on $107 million in revenue. In February, LiquidNet's founders and early investors sold 13% of the company to private-equity investors in a $250 million transaction that valued LiquidNet at $1.8 billion.
With revenues expected to double again this year, LiquidNet won't even consider a distracting IPO for at least two years, Merrin says. Note to IPO investors: Mark your 2007 calendars. |
