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%
RadView Software Aug. 9 -10%

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