Wall Street’s love/hate relationship for Internet stocks
showed its nasty side Thursday when Vignette Corp., makers of the
StoryServer Web management system, filed to postpone its plans for an
initial public offering.
The company’s brief withdrawal request submitted to the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission blamed the uncertainty of current market conditions.
In early October, Vignette filed plans with the SEC to raise about $30
million in an IPO, about five months after word first surfaced that the
company wanted to go public. IPO speculation came shortly after Vignette
hired Greg Peters in May as its new chief executive officer.
Like many Internet companies, Vignette planned to take itself public even
though it was still losing money. The company reported losses of $7.5
million, or $1.19 a share, in 1997. Through the first half of 1998,
Vignette’s losses had climbed to $9.7 million, or $1.17 a share.
Vignette had lined up Morgan Stanley Dean
Witter as principal underwriter of the offering. Co-underwriters
included Hambrecht & Quist and Dain Rauscher Wessels.
Part of Vignette’s technology was developed by CNET Inc., publisher of several
technology-related Web sites. CNET sold the technology to Vignette in 1996
in return for a stake in the company.
CNET and several other Web sites use Vignette’s StoryServer.
