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To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (29405)	12/9/1998 9:33:00 AM
From: H James Morris	Respond to of 164684

< NEW YORK, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The Internet initial public offering gold rush continues this week with a new batch of companies trying to raise fortunes in the stock market, with Xoom.com Inc. <XMCM.O> expected to be the hottest of the issues, analysts said. Xoom.com, a direct marketing company on the Internet, attracts people to its community sites with free services, such as e-mail. "Xoom is going to zoom," said Kathleen Smith, a portfolio manager at the Renaissance IPO Fund <IPOSX.O>. "They are coming into a market where there is too little supply and anything with an Internet angle has a lot of interest." Internet stocks, such as Yahoo Inc.<YHOO.O>, Amazon.com <AMZN.O> and America Online Inc.<AOL.N>, are among the highest fliers in the stock market. In a sign of hot demand for the deal, Xoom's IPO price range had been raised to $12 to $14 from $9 to $11, and its size had been raised to four million shares from three million shares. Bear Stearns is the lead underwriter on the deal, which is expected to price late Tuesday. The San Francisco-based company, which aims at being the largest community-based direct selling channel on the Internet, had proforma net loss of $4.05 million on revenue of $2.6 million for the six months ended June 30. "Xoom will get additional steam from GeoCities <GCTY.O> and theglobe.com's<TGLO.O> performances," said Steven Tuen, an analyst at IPO Value Monitor. Both Web-based community creators are seen as its competitors. Internet content compiler Infospace.com Inc. <INSP.O>, which will offer four million shares in a range of $9 to $11 through lead underwriter Hambrecht & Quist, is expected to do well, analysts said. It is slated to price Dec. 10. The Redmond, Washington-based company offers content from a host of affiliates. Infospace.com's cornerstone is the online yellow pages and white pages directories. It posted a net loss of $4.6 million on revenues of $2.86 million for the six months ended June 30. "Infospace has key agreements signed with America Online and Netscape (Communications Corp.<NSCP.O>,)" Tuen said. "They don't really have a publicly- traded competitor." AboveNet Communications <ABOV.O>, an Internet connectivity solutions provider, is expected to be another hot stock. It is offering four million shares in price range of $9 to $11 through CIBC Oppenheimer. It is expected to price Dec. 11 The San Jose, Calif.-based Internet company lists Internet service provider Exodus Communications Inc.<EXDS.O>, telecommunications companies and information technology outsourcing firms such as IBM Corp. <IBM.N> and Electronic Data Systems Corp. <EDS.N> as its competitors. Southwestern Internet service provider Internet America Inc. <GEEK.O> will offer 2.3 million shares in a range of $9 to $11 through lead underwriter Hoak Securities Inc. In October, the Dallas-based company had postponed its offering due to market conditions. The company has about 50,000 customers in the North Texas areas and uses television advertising as its primary marketing tool. For the nine months ended June 30, it earned $689,000 on $7.7 million revenue. It is expected to price Dec. 10 Claimsnet.com Inc. <CLNT.O>, an electronic commerce company in healthcare transactions that provides processing for medical and dental via the Internet, would offer 1.5 million shares at about $7. Strausbourger was the lead underwriter on the deal, which is expected to price Dec. 11. "If these IPOs can maintain the momentum seen in the last couple weeks going into next year, IPOs will have a strong start," Tuen said. "A couple of months ago, we thought (the market) would be dead into the new year, but at this point a lot of companies have reassessed the IPO market and will will want to come to market." 16:53 12-08-98