Chris Nerney

There are big Internet plays, and there are modest ones. We’re seeing both this month. On the grandiose side, iVillage is scheduled to go public this week . The women’s Web network company on Tuesday boldly increased its offer price range from $14-$16 to $22-$24 a share, increasing the amount it hopes to raise from […]

March must be nostalgia month in the Internet IPO world, for yet another veteran of 1996’s “free e-mail” movement has filed to go public. Like Juno Online Services, which submitted its S-1 on March 5, Mail.com Mail.com is seeking public investor money — $57.5 million in this case – to finance its expansion and a […]

Beginning Tuesday, The Midday Report each month will review the stock and financial performance of Internet companies as they near the anniversaries of their public offerings. Today we’ll look at Exodus Communications, CyberShop International and ISS Group, all of which went public last March. Exodus on the upswing With a four-month surge in share prices […]

One of the perverse pleasures of reading the S-1 filings of Internet companies planning to go public is the section called “risk factors,” in which registrants are required to spell out in excruciating detail the numerous reasons why only a fool would invest in their company. But the majority of “risk factors” listed by companies […]

So like, the other day I was in this chat room, and like – well, first off, there were some really kewl peeps in there – and somebody says – I think he was a venture capitalist or something, but he was pretending he was Leo’s brother, like, as if – and he says, “Y’know, […]

One started down this road more than two years ago, only to slam on the brakes before reaching its destination. The other is shiny and new, fresh from the IPO factory. Neither has a warranty. They are Autobytel.com and Autoweb.com, two companies that run Web sites offering car buyers a fighting chance against fast-talking auto […]

I was mocked last Friday, vilified, when I predicted that soon every person in America would be their own Internet IPO. And then along comes a former Reagan Cabinet member to support my thesis and salvage my tattered pride. Serendipity’s name in this case is Dr. C. Everett Koop, once U.S. Surgeon General and now […]

Strip away all the rhetoric, and there really are only two viable market strategies for Internet-based companies: 1) target a mass audience, a la the portal players and online retailers, or 2) establish yourself as a leader in a lucrative niche. RoweCom, which went public Tuesday under the Nasdaq symbol “ROWE,” has opted for the […]

E-mail, it has been said, is the killer app of the Internet. And truly, it’s hard to argue against that, since more Americans report using e-mail daily than report using the Internet. You can’t get much more killer. One reason for this usage disparity is that companies offering “free e-mail” allow users with just a […]

I’ve been crunching some numbers lately, precisely factoring in the current Internet IPO registration rate with some vague assertions and unfounded generalizations, and have reached this startling conclusion: By the year 2003, not only will every person in America hold stock in an Internet company, each person will be an Internet IPO. The Internet and […]

While public offerings from high-profile Internet companies such as iVillage and GeoCities tend to draw the most public attention, the bulk of the Internet IPO action comes in the form of lesser-known companies providing unglamorous, but critical, products and services. One such company is NEON Systems, which plans Thursday to offer 2.7 million shares of […]

A man who stumbles upon the iVillage network of Web sites while surfing the ‘Net might feel as though he has parachuted into the middle of a women’s magazine. Everywhere he turns he is surrounded by headlines touting advice on dieting, relationships, fitness and beauty, money management, parenting and careers, with a little astrology thrown […]