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Drugstore.com Files to Raise as Much as $67.5 Million in IPO Bloomberg News May 19, 1999, 3:26 p.m. PT Drugstore.com Files to Raise as Much as $67.5 Million in IPO Washington, May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Drugstore.com Inc., an online retailer of drugs and healthcare products that is backed by Amazon.com Inc., filed for an initial stock sale that could raise as much as $67.5 million. The Bellevue, Washington-based company was formed last year and started selling products in February. Drugstore.com is led by former Microsoft Corp. executive Peter Neupert, 43, and counts Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures Inc. and Starbucks Corp. Chairman Howard Schultz among its top investors. Amazon.com, the online retailer of books and music, holds a 43.8 percent stake before the IPO. Staking out a place in the online medicine and personal-care market could be big business: Total U.S. sales of drugs, vitamins and personal-care products will reach $180 billion this year, estimates Mark Husson, a Merrill Lynch analyst. That's almost five times the $38.5 billion in total sales Forrester Research Inc. projects this year for books and music, two of the most successful online categories. Drugstore.com and other startups, including CVS's Corp.'s newly purchased Soma.com, PlanetRX Inc. and RX.com, are betting they can win over a lot of busy bargain hunters. They say the convenience of buying online also will help them tap the growing demand for health-care products from an aging U.S. population. The prescription business is especially appealing. Surging sales to older consumers helped boost prescription sales 15 percent last year to $102.5 billion, according to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. That makes prescriptions one of the fastest-growing parts of U.S. retailing. Drugstore.com said it may use proceeds from the stock sale to make acquisitions. The company decided to go public in part to ''to increase our working capital'' and to ''increase our visibility in the retail marketplace,'' according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Drugstore.com didn't specify the number of shares it would sell or their estimated price range. Those details will be included in a supplemental filing. The $67.5 million top value was used solely to calculate a registration fee. An underwriting group led by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter will market shares to the public. Drugstore.com has applied to trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol ''DSCM.'' | ||||||||||||||
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