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Strategies & Market Trends : The Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: yossarian67 who wrote (35713)	3/7/2001 4:40:53 AM
From: SirRealist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 49816

IPO pickup includes high- and biotech By Tom Taulli, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 2:15 AM ET Mar 7, 2001 NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- It's not an illusion. Yes, there are six IPOs planned for this week. In fact, there is a high-tech IPO on the docket: Loudcloud. The company is backed by the wunderkid of the Internet revolution, Marc Andreessen. Loudcloud develops software infrastructure products to make Web sites run, well, much better. And the company has quite a few customers, such as Brocade Communications and Blockbuster. However, have you seen the performance of other infrastructure companies lately? Yep, not good. So, Loudcloud will probably generate a storm of excitement initially, but it will likely fizzle fast. The lead co-underwriters are Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The company plans to issue 10 million shares at $10-$12 each. The proposed ticker symbol is LDCL (LDCL: news, msgs, alerts) . Okay, while Loudcloud should steal the show this week, there's another interesting IPO for investors to consider. It is Seattle Genetics. Apparently, the company has a powerful Seattle Rolodex. Both Bill Gates and Paul Allen are investors. Each owns a cool 2.7 million shares. Hmmm. Is this where the smart money is going? Let's see. Basically, Seattle Genetics is a developer of so-called monoclonal antibody drugs for the treatment of cancer and other deadly diseases. Monoclonal antibodies are proteins that connect with certain molecules and can, as a result, be used to target cell populations - like cancer. The technology is not science fiction; there are about $1.4 billion in monoclonal antibody-based drugs. The company has four types of monoclonal antibody-based technologies. They include: monoclonal antibodies made in mouse form but altered to appear human-like for a patient's immune system (there is less toxicity compared to chemotherapy); monoclonal antibodies that enter cells (inactive until released, so as to spare damage to normal tissue); monoclonal antibodies that kill cells by blocking protein production; and antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (ADEPT), which minimizes exposure to normal tissue. So far, the main drugs are: SGN-15 (in phase II of clinical trials) and SGN-10 (in phase I of clinical trials). These drugs treat breast, colon and prostate cancers. There are five other drugs in preclinical development. No doubt, the company has a top-notch management team. The co-founder and CEO, H. Perry Feel, was formerly a Research Scientist at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute. He has written 30 scientific papers and holds six patents. Clay Siegall, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, was a Senior Research Investigator at Bristol-Myers Squib. He serves on the board of three scientific journals. Yet, Seattle Genetics is still in the early stages of development. In 2000, the company had losses of $7.8 million and $1 million in revenues. And don't expect meaningful revenue for a few years. But there appears to be growing demand for the IPO. For example, the price range was upped from $10-$12 to $11-$13. What's more, the company has a deal - worth as much as $45 million - with Genentech, which is also an equity investor. But such investors are looking at the long-term. This is not a company that will likely see short-term growth. In other words, there is no reason to rush into this stock. The co-lead underwriters are JP Morgan and CIBC World Markets. The proposed ticker symbol is SGEN (SGEN: news, msgs, alerts) . (from CBS MKTW)