Chris Nerney

That sound you’ve been hearing since New Year’s Day is the Internet stock engine revving into hyperdrive. While many pundits and traders have been saying for months that the latest bout of Internet stock mania will soon subside, the record pace of ‘Net-related IPOs and filings so far this year suggests otherwise. In January and […]

Audience measurement services company Media Metrix is in a fairly unique position among Internet start-ups: It has a legitimate chance to fend off the 800-pound gorilla that lurks on the outskirts of its market jungle. The corporate anthropoid in this case, of course, is Nielsen Media Research, the fabled television audience measurement giant more commonly […]

If you were choosing the soundtrack for IPO Musicmaker.com, music from a disaster movie might be most appropriate. It’s not that Musicmaker.com doesn’t have a great idea. Allowing online shoppers to custom-create their own CDs, which are shipped right to their homes or even downloaded, clearly is an ideal marriage of Internet and digital recording […]

MapQuest.com first made a splash on the Internet in 1996 with a Web site that spit out instant driving directions (and accompanying maps) from anyplace to anyplace, debunking forever the notion that “you can’t get there from here.” For new users especially, MapQuest.com provided one of the first “gee whiz” experiences online. Its URL quickly […]

On Tuesday, we looked at pcOrder.com, one of three e-commerce companies scheduled to price IPOs this week. Today we’ll look at the other two. Name your Priceline.com Imagine a world in which you can buy the new vehicle you want at the price you want to pay, and you don’t even have to talk to […]

One reason the Internet stock market is so exciting these days is because almost everybody knows the thrill ride won’t go on forever. And that’s because any large disconnect between a company’s market valuation and its real value (as a function of revenue growth and profitability) can’t last. That’s what hangs over all talk about […]

There’s nothing like some high-visibility coverage by prestigious Fortune magazine to help build a buzz around your company’s pending IPO. That is unless the headline alerting readers to your company in the March 1 issue is “Silicon Valley’s Biggest Hype Job.” While competition for this distinction is incredibly fierce, the winner in this case is […]