And Then There Was One

Last month was a big one for initial public offerings - if you were interested in biotechs, that is. 'Net investors, in contrast, were treated to a real October surprise: Just one Internet IPO.

Fiber-optic Internet network provider Asia Global Crossing debuted on the street Oct. 6, finishing the day at $7.38 per share, just 5% above its offer price of $7 for 53 million shares.

Otherwise, that was it.

And this after a mini-flurry of Internet IPOs in late September, which seemed to indicate increased activity as the fall got under way. Instead, there since has been next-to-no action, and there may not be any going forward until the market demonstrates it has found a bottom.

If we didn't see another 'Net stock debut before Dec. 31, this year would still average 10 Internet IPOs per month. That's more than any other year except 1999, when there were 258 'Net public offerings, or more than 20 per month.

But as every Internet investor knows only too well, this year isn't last year.

Here are the numbers for Internet IPOs through October:

Month	This year	1999
January	5	4
February	27	11
March	27	13
April	13	17
May	6	26
June	11	32
July	13	35
August	12	26
September	7	26
October	1	21
Total	122	211

Average First-Day Return (By Month)

Month	This Year	1999
January	160%	241%
February	126%	122%
March	99%	134%
April	31%	116%
May	38%	59%
June	41%	116%
July	63%	74%
August	14%	45%
September	57%	72%
October	5%	112%

10 Best Internet Debuts of 2000

Company	IPO Date	Gain
webMethods	Feb. 11	508%
Crayfish	March 8	414%
Selectica	March 10	371%
FirePond	Feb. 4	356%
Neoforma.com	Jan. 24	303%
Extensity	Jan. 27	256%
ArrowPoint	March 31	248%
Storage Networks	June 30	234%
GigaMedia	Feb. 17	226%
net.Genesis	Feb. 29	216%

10 Worst Internet Debuts of 2000

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Company	IPO Date	Loss
iAsiaWorks	Aug. 3	-27%
INTERLAND	July 25	-26%
ARTISTdirect	March 28	-22%
Avistar Communications	Aug. 17	-22%
AsiaContent.com	April 12	-21%
coolsavings.com	May 19	-21%
ScreamingMedia	Aug. 3	-13%
PartsBase.com	March 22	-12%
ImproveNet	March 16	-12%