initial public offering posts
FeedPosted Apr 12th 2011 4:45PM by The Associated Press (RSS feed)

Zipcar Inc., the car-sharing company that rents rides for as little as an hour, is expected to get a warm reception from Wall Street for its planned initial public offering this week.
Its supporters think skyrocketing gas prices will make car sharing more popular. They praise Zipcar's technological savvy and its plans for overseas expansion.
Zipcar is "one of the long-awaited hot tickets in the IPO valley," said John Fitzgibbon, founder of IPOscoop.com. Investors are warming up to IPOs again after the market sputtered in 2008 and 2009.
Still, Zipcar has never been profitable since it was founded in 2000. It expects to lose money again in 2011. Cars, its main expense, don't come cheap.
The IPO's value would total about $125 million at the midpoint of its expected price range of $14 to $16 per share. Of that, the company expects proceeds of about $89 million, $46 million of which it plans to use to pay down debt.
Continue reading Zipcar Revs Up for Its IPO
Posted Dec 14th 2010 12:00PM by Tom Taulli (RSS feed)
Filed under: China, Initial Public Offerings
It's the last week for the IPO market but investors don't want it to end -- at least for Chinese deals. The latest: iSoftStone Holding (ISS). This information technology services company priced its offering at $13, which was at the top of its $11 too $13 range. In Tuesday morning trading, the shares were up 30%.
iSoftStone provides its high-end consulting services to four main industry verticals, which include technology, communications, financial services and energy. No doubt, these are growing categories in China. In all, there are 71 clients.
Continue reading iSoftStone Continues the Chinese IPO Surge
Posted Jun 29th 2010 3:40PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Other Issues, Rants and Raves, Market Matters, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Initial Public Offerings, Technology

The long awaited Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Tesla Motors (TSLA) stock hit the market at $17.00 a share and it is up in a down market, trading between $18 and $19 throughout Tuesday morning.
I say stay away. First and foremost, investors should take note of the fact that most IPO's end up as losing propositions. In the case of Tesla, which lost over $55.7 million last year and will lose more this year, the bleeding has just begun.
The car manufacturing business is very capital intensive and Tesla only hopes to stem the tide in 2012 when it projects a production run of 20,000 Model S all electric sedans for $50,000 each.
Continue reading Tesla IPO: Hot Stock or Portfolio Shock?
Posted Jun 15th 2010 8:30AM by Paul Foster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Goldman Sachs Group (GS), BP p.l.c. ADS (BP), Options, Initial Public Offerings

BP PLC (
BP) is recently up $1.03 to $31.70 in pre-open trading. BP debt rating was cut to two levels above junk by Fitch Ratings. BP June 31 straddle is priced at $3.20, October is at $11.50. Overall option implied volatility of 84 is above its 26-week average of 40 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.
Goldman Sachs (
GS) closed at $133.74. GS overall option implied volatility of 43 is above its 26-week average of 40, according to Track Data suggesting slightly larger near term price movement.
CBOE Holdings (CBOE) initial public offering of at least 11.7 million shares were priced at $29.
Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.
Posted Nov 25th 2009 2:30PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Research in Motion (RIMM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP), Media World, Technology
Look for a LinkedIn IPO, but not in the near future. Company co-founder and executive chairman Reid Hoffman has revealed his (and his investors') exit strategy, even if it could take a while to get there. Any social media company IPO would take a while to get off the ground in this market, since companies are being incredibly cautious. So, "not anytime soon" could coincide with a change in market conditions ... but Hoffman stopped well short of that.
At an event in London to celebrate LinkedIn's hitting the 3 million user mark in Britain, Hoffman said about the company's IPO prospects, "Probably at some point a balance will occur when that's the right thing. That will not occur in the near term." Worldwide, LinkedIn has 53 million members.
Continue reading Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn will go public (at some point)
Posted Nov 6th 2009 11:00AM by Tom Taulli (RSS feed)
Filed under: Citigroup Inc. (C), Initial Public Offerings

Being 34% owned by the U.S. government,
Citigroup's (NYSE:
C) destiny is somewhat murky. Yet, to pay off the loans, this massive financial institution must shrink. To this end, Citigroup has
filed a public offering for its Primerica Financial Services. According to the prospectus, the deal is expected to raise $100 million, but it's likely the amount will be much larger.
Primerica certainly has an interesting history. Back in 1977, an aggressive financial service executive, Arthur Williams, started the company, with the focus on providing term insurance to consumers as well as mutual fund products. However, he had an interesting twist on distribution: he used network marketing. Basically, a Primerica agent would get incentives by recruiting new agents. As a result, the company's growth exploded.
Continue reading Primerica IPO: Citigroup unwinds its far-flung empire
Posted Nov 6th 2009 9:40AM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Deals, NYSE Euronext (NYX), News Corp'B' (NWS), Initial Public Offerings
The IPO market has been pretty slow for the past two years due to the effects of a subprime mortgage crisis that turned into a credit crisis that turned into a worldwide financial crisis and recession. Nonetheless, two companies made their debuts Thursday -- one on the NYSE (NYSE: NYX), the other on the NASDAQ -- and they nailed it. Hyatt Hotels (NYSE: H) gave its investors a 12% gain on its first Big Board trading day, and Ancestry.com (NASDAQ: ACOM) switched those digits, jumping 21% in its first day of trading.
Hyatt Hotels overcame two major concerns. The worldwide travel market slump has been tough on hotel companies, and Hyatt has been subject to the same forces as everyone else. Also, investors may have been worried about infighting among the founder's heirs (the Pritzker family), but the double-digit price increase suggests that investors don't foresee Bancroft-style squabbles screwing investors -- or, if you don't like Dow Jones, now a part of News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS), Playboy (NYSE: PLA) makes the same point.
Continue reading Hyatt and Ancestry.com IPOs: Beginners' luck?
Posted Sep 26th 2009 11:40AM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), Time Warner (TWX), Private Equity, Technology
Twitter's much-hyped $100 million round of financing closed Friday, cementing the company's (illiquid) value at $1 billion, though Twitter itself would not confirm the amount. T. Rowe Price and Insight Venture Partners participated in the deal, as expected, which is believed to be a precursor to an eventual liquidity event -- such as an IPO or acquisition.
In a way, it feels like 1999, where you have investors rushing to invest in high-profile companies, despite the absence of revenue models. Yet, Twitter may not be as bad off as the traditional folks think, especially if the goal is an acquisition. The company does say that it's pursuing revenue via corporate accounts. But, it's been saying this for a while, and we haven't seen anything yet. Also, it's leaving open the possibility of running ads on the site, though this wouldn't happen within the next three months.
Continue reading Twitter closes new round -- what's next?
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