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To: Aljorma who wrote (26641)	7/23/1999 2:51:00 PM
From: Ed Forrest	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 41369

Friday July 23, 2:24 pm Eastern Time Net2Phone raises expected price range of IPO By Angela Moore NEW YORK, July 23 (Reuters) - Web telephony provider Net2Phone Inc. (Nasdaq:NTOP - news) on Friday raised the expected price range of its initial public stock offering to $12 to $14 per share from $10 to $12. The company is poised for the IPO early next week and has positioned itself to be first in line in a venture that analysts say could drastically alter the telecommunications industry. ''This is hands-down the leader in Web telephony,'' said Paul Bard, an analyst with Renaissance Capital's IPO Plus Aftermarket Fund (Nasdaq:IPOSX - news). ''It's going to change the landscape of how people make phone calls.'' Net2Phone provides Internet telephony services, which allow users to make telephone calls over the Internet at low cost. It is a unit of telecommunications company IDT Corp. (Nasdaq:IDTC - news), and when it goes public, IDT will own about 57 percent of Net2Phone's outstanding capital stock. Net2Phone's services are promoted through relationships with international resellers and Internet companies. Its software will be embedded exclusively into new versions of the browser of America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news) unit Netscape Communications Corp. ''You can't ask for a greater exposure,'' Bard said. Net2Phone has also signed a four-year, multimillion-dollar deal with ICQ, another AOL unit, to provide Internet telephony services to users of ICQ's instant messaging service. In its IPO, Net2Phone, based in Hackensack, N.J., will offer 5.1 million through lead underwriter Hambrecht & Quist. The shares will trade under the prospective symbol ''NTOP'' on the Nasdaq stock market. Net2Phone has yet to make an annual profit and had an accumulated deficit of $8.7 million as of April 30. It expects to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future. Net2Phone's prospectus said the market for Internet telephony services has been extremely competitive and its product competitors include Israel's VocalTec Communications Ltd.'s (Nasdaq:VOCL - news) Internet Phone and Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) NetMeeting. Additionally, several heavy-hitters such as France's Alcatel SA , Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO - news), Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LU - news) and Dialogic Corp. (Nasdaq:DLGC - news) have said they plan to offer similar products, according to the prospectus. A further risk is that large long distance providers such as AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - news), MCI WorldCom Inc. (Nasdaq:WCOM - news) and Qwest Communications International Inc. (Nasdaq:QWST - news) have entered or plan to enter the market for carrying voice over the Internet, it said. Net2Phone said these companies pose a threat because they are larger and have greater financial, distribution and marketing resources. One of Net2Phone's selling points is its ability to offer discounted domestic and international calls. If larger companies are able to undercut Net2Phone's rates, the company may lose its competitive advantage. Net2Phone's prospectus says it plans to use $7 million of the proceeds from the IPO to repay some of a debt to IDT, $3.5 million will be payed to ICQ Inc. for distribution and marketing, and $1.5 million will go to NBC, a unit of General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE - news), for television advertising. The rest will be put toward the development and maintenance of ''Internet relationships,'' promotion, research and development and general corporate purposes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More Quotes and News: Nasdaq:DLGC - news; Nasdaq:NTOP - news America Online Inc (NYSE:AOL - news) AT&T Corp (NYSE:T - news) Cisco Systems Inc (Nasdaq:CSCO - news) General Electric Co (NYSE:GE - news) IDT Corp (Nasdaq:IDTC - news) Lucent Technologies Inc (NYSE:LU - news) MCI WorldCom Inc (Nasdaq:WCOM - news) Microsoft Corp (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) QWest Communications International Inc (Nasdaq:QWST - news) Renaissance Funds IPO Fund (Nasdaq:IPOSX - news) VocalTec Communications Ltd (Nasdaq:VOCL - news) Related News Categories: IPOs, US Market News -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. See our Important Disclaimers and Legal Information. Questions or Comments?