IPO Market Gets Cooler

Last week showed a crowded market can adversely affect first day
gains. There were some respectable gains, but also some disappointments.
Yes, the IPO market is starting to calm down.

The week began with Caldera’s stock closing up at 29 7/16, or 110 percent,
which does not compare to the spectacular first-day gains of RedHat (RHAT) and VA
Linux (LNUX). Caldera (CALD) sells desktop and server versions of the Linux
operating system. By Friday, it was down to 24 5/8.

Robertson Stephens was the lead underwriter.

Also on Tuesday was Snowball.com (SNOW), which is a content site that targets
Internet users between the ages of 12 and 29. It started at an
$11-per-share offering price and rose 39.2 percent to end at 15 5/16. By
Friday, it snowballed back to its original offering price.

Goldman, Sachs was the lead underwriter.

InSilicon (INSN) did nicely on Wednesday. It rose nearly 80 percent as its
shares closed at 21 9/16, up 9 9/16. By week’s end, InSilicon slipped a
bit to 20 3/8. The company develops sophisticated components, which allow
semiconductor companies to develop chips much faster.

There was more than a breeze from Breezecom (BRZE) on its IPO. Rather, it
was somewhat of a strong wind. Shares went from its $20 starting price to
end at 39 13/16. Breezecom, a Tel Aviv-based company, makes high-speed,
data transmission access products for local area network (LAN) and other
networks. Investors liked what it saw and shares continued to rise on
Friday to 44 7/8. It was definitely an impressive performance.

CIBC Worldmarkets was the lead underwriter.

Friday was a mixed bag and saw only one real winner, Silicon Laboratories (SLAB). It closed at 69 3/8, which is double its $31 opening price. It
raised about $100 million. The Austin, Texas-based company makes
mixed-signal
integrated circuits for the communications industry.
The lead underwriter was Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.

Eprise (EPRS), starting out at $15, rose 68 percent to close at 25 1/4.
Eprise helps businesses create and update Web content, as well as to
protect
against unauthorized access. Customers include Bausch & Lomb,
Hewlett-Packard, and American Express.

Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown was the lead underwriter.

EMachines (EEEE) opened Friday at its offering price of $9, but slipped
back
to 8 1/4 by the end of the day. While the company has sold more than 2
million PCs, investors were cautious about the company’s razor thin profit
margin of about 4 percent. True, the company says it will become a portal,
but who needs another portal?

Credit Suisse First Boston was the lead underwriter.

Etinuum (ETIN) managed to stay above its open, but only fractionally, up
3/8 above its $12 opening. The company provides e-commerce applications
development and consulting.

Its lead underwriter was Chase H&Q.