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To: llamaphlegm who wrote (18514)	9/26/1998 11:43:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Prodigy Files for Public Offering Of up to $86.3 Million in Stock An INTERACTIVE JOURNAL News Roundup Prodigy Communications Corp. filed for an initial public offering of up to $86.3 million in common stock, marking a remarkable comeback for the once-troubled Internet service provider. Prodigy, once a leading online service, has been recasting itself as an Internet-service provider. And while the company remains deeply in the red, the number of subscribers is growing again after a long slide, according the company's prospectus. Prodigy, White Plains, N.Y., said it hasn't determined the size and estimated share price of any offering, and said it doesn't expect any offering before November. All shares will be sold by the company. The offering is being managed by Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. and BancBoston Robertson Stephens Inc., and co-managed by ING Baring Furman Selz LLC and Volpe Brown Whelan & Co. According to its filing, Prodigy had 386,000 Internet-service customers as of June 30, and 252,000 subscribers to its Classic on-line service, which it no longer actively markets. "The whole game is getting customers and Prodigy has a good customer base," said Tom Taulli, research director for IPO Monitor.com in Los Angeles and market analyst for the Silicon Investor Web site. Accroding to the filing, Prodigy had a loss of $114.1 million on revenue of $98.9 million for 1996, and a loss of $129.3 million on revenue of $134.2 million in 1997. For the six months ended June 30, 1998, Prodigy had a loss of $31.9 million on revenue of $67.3 million. Prodigy, started as a joint venture of International Business Machines Corp. and Sears Roebuck Co., was sold in 1996 to a group of investors including Mexico's Grupo Carso Telecom SA and others for $250 million, a fraction of the amount IBM and Sears had sunk into it. Prodigy transformed its business substantially over the past two years, moving customers to its newer Internet service from its traditional online service. And the company is evaluating other ways to build its business. It is expanding its Web hosting and electronic commerce offerings for business customers, and is considering co-branded marketing of services such as paging, long distance, cellular and Internet-based telephony sevices to consumers, the prospectus said. In addition, Prodigy is in discussions with Telmex to market its Internet services to Spanish-speaking customers in the U.S. and is seeking a partner to offer a Spanish-language portal to the Internet, the filing stated.