IPO Tracker: Looking Back at the Week

Despite the holidays, the IPO market still had a good week, with
companies as eCollege.com and Infonet made their debuts. But on the eve of the Christmas holiday, there’s been little action from the IPO
market. This week was fairly light – especially compared to the
fireworks last week.

Shares of Xpedior (XPDR) rose 7 to 26 on its first day of trading. The company helps
provide consulting services to companies for e-commerce, branding, and so
on. The lead underwriter was Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette and the amount raised
was $162 million.

Although not a perfect score, eCollege.com (ECLG) had a decent IPO. The shares climbed 4-1/4 to 15-1/4 on the
first day of trading. As the name implies, eCollege.com provides turnkey
solutions to help campuses put courses online. The company raised $55
million and the lead underwriter was Banc of America Securities.

Finally, there was the biggest deal of the week:
Infonet Services (IN) , which raised $1.08 billion dollars in a 51.3 million share offering. Priced
at $21, the shares quickly rose to 26-11/16 on volume of about 33 million shares. The lead underwriter was Merrill Lynch.

Basically, the company provides cross-border data communications services.
In 1999, revenues were $303 million and profits $4.7 million.

Filings

The following are top companies that filed to go public:

1. Divine Interventures (DVIN): The company is a leader in the consulting
for B2B ventures. The lead underwriter is CS First Boston.

2. Transaction Information Systems (TISW): This company provides e-commerce consulting
services to such companies as Citigroup and Dow Jones. The company
generated $84.7 million in revenues in 1998 and net income of $2.7 million.
The lead underwriter is Hambrecht & Quist.


Future

Finally, Ford announced that it plans to file an IPO for its AutoXchange
business-to-business site for auto suppliers. Ford buys about $80 billion
in goods every year through its vendor network. The B2B site, a joint venture with Oracle, is expected to save billions.

The IPO is expected late 2000.

Not to be outdone, GM is also setting up a B2B site – called GM TradeXch
ange. The partner on the deal is Commerce One. GM spends about $87
billion per year with direct vendors.

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