Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Moonray who wrote (15568)	5/23/1998 11:08:00 AM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 22053

Com21 Rises in First Day of Trading After $60 Mln IPO Milpitas, California, May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Com21 Inc., which makes equipment and software for Internet access via cable television, rose 29 percent in its first day of trading. The Milpitas, California-based company rose 3 1/2 to 15 1/2 as 7.8 million shares changed hands on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The company sold 5 million shares, a 28 percent stake, at $12 each to raise $60 million. The shares priced at the top of the expected range set by Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Inc., which managed the sale. The IPO gave Com21 a market capitalization of $213.2 million. Prospects for companies such as Com21 involved in providing high-speed Internet access ''are pretty positive in the long run as the Internet grows,'' said Bruce Leichtman, an analyst with the Yankee Group in Boston. ''If you expect to make money overnight in it, that's not going to happen.'' Fewer than half of U.S. households will be able to access the Internet at high speeds via cable by the end of the year 2000, he said. ''In the shorter run, you're going to get the low- hanging fruit, and that represents a couple of million people by the end of the year 2000.'' In the meantime, suppliers to cable companies such as Com21, and the cable companies themselves, face a shakeout as they vie for market share, he said. Com21 began shipping its modems and software packages in April 1997 to cable TV companies, who use the systems to connect residential and small and home-office customers to the Internet. The company had an accumulated deficit of $39.6 million as of March 31. It had revenue of $15.6 million in 1997, and a loss of $13.1 million. In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it ''expects to continue to operate at a loss through at least fiscal 1999.'' Com21, headed by chief executive Peter D. Fenner, plans to use the money raised in the IPO for capital spending, product development, and other general purposes. The company also may pursue acquisitions. Fenner, 62, was an executive with AT&T Corp.'s networking businesses between 1986 and 1992. Com21 trades under the symbol ''CMTO.'' Merrill Lynch & Co. and Dain Rauscher Inc. assisted in the transaction. Hmmmm, so the earlier story was wrong. They decided not to trade this stock under the symbol "COMS" after all.<g> o~~~ O