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By: lmcatanz
Reply To: None
Monday, 8 Mar 1999 at 10:36 AM EST
Post # of 6880
CMGI readies raft of new offerings
By Kimberly Weisul
March 8, 1999 9:17am
Inter@ctive Week Online
In the past year, venture investor CMGI Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI) has brought one company
public and sold five others. Now, the company is positioning to unleash a raft of filings for
initial public offerings.
CMGI (chart, estimates), which reports earnings Thursday, announced last week it signed
a letter of intent to purchase Web traffic researcher Internet Profiles (I/Pro) and merge it
with one of the companies CMGI is taking public.
CMGI Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David Wetherell said portfolio companies
NaviSite and Engage should file their initial public offering (IPO) documents with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission this week. Also, Silknet, which develops
Web-based customer service software, recently put together an investment banking team
for its IPO, Wetherell said.
I/Pro will join the CMGI Internet Group as a wholly owned subsidiary, to be merged with
Engage, which analyzes Web usage patterns for advertisers. I/Pro provides Web traffic
analysis and research services. I/Pro President and CEO Bradley Rode will report to
Engage CEO Paul Schaut.
Part of Engage's strength comes from the databases it has built by tracking behavior on
other CMGI-affiliated sites, including giants like GeoCities and Lycos.
Names, credit-card numbers and other identifying data are stripped from the database,
earning it TrustE certification.
Schaut said advertisers will pony up unheard-of Web ad rates - $150 to $200 per
thousand viewers - to target surfers with profiles in the Engage database.
Financial terms of the I/Pro purchase agreement were not disclosed.
Meanwhile, NaviSite provides Web hosting services. One of its offerings, NaviNet, is now
fully owned by CMGI. NaviNet, Wetherell said, links competitive local exchange carriers
together to become the lowest-cost provider of bandwidth. Wetherell said most Internet
service providers (ISPs) pay about $12 per customer per month for capacity, and then
they have to buy routers on top of that. NaviNet's costs are from $7 to $9 per month, and
Wetherell said the ISP doesn't have to worry about routers.
In addition, Wetherell said, CMGI company Chemdex is "well-positioned" for an IPO.
Chemdex provides an online marketplace for the purchase of research supplies.
If CMGI's history with young companies is any indicator, the new contenders are off to a
good start. A publicly traded venture firm, CMGI's stock is up 17,598 percent since
January 1994. It now makes two to four investments per month through its third fund,
which raised $272 million and was the first to take money from other limited partners.
Those partners include Sumitomo, Kingworld and BancBoston.
There's good news for other CMGI companies, as well. Raging Bull, an investment site,
snagged Steve Killeen, formerly a senior vice president at Fidelity's interactive group, as
its CEO
Good Hunting
DAVE DICKERSON |
