Many investors are eagerly waiting for Google, the Web search titan, to go public. But those same investors, many still smarting from losses when technology stocks plummeted, may not be ready to jump at just any new technology offering in 2004.
The market for initial public offerings has languished of late, with fewer than 100 in each of the past three years, including 2003. But in 2004, analysts expect as many as 150 companies to go public -- roughly half of them technology related.
But do not expect a replay of 2000, when there were nearly 400 initial offerings, most of them by technology companies. This time, investors are likely to expect profitability to be on a stock issuer's resume, Richard Peterson, chief market strategist with Thomson First Call said.
Clearly, that is the allure of Google, the closely held Web search company that was founded by two Stanford computer science graduate students in 1998. In recent weeks, Google has become the subject of speculation that it intends to go public in the spring. Although Google discloses little about its financial condition, people close to the company say it reached profitability long ago and has been on a growth path ever since.
Over the last several months, the company approached a short list of investment banks about underwriting the offering, and is considering selling a 10 percent to 15 percent stake to the public in hope of raising more than US$2 billion, executives close to the discussions say.
"It will be exciting on a scale of Netscape," said David Menlow, president of IPOfinancial.com, a research company in Millburn, New Jersey. "The difference is that Netscape wasn't profitable."
Given the losses many investors suffered when stocks plunged, analysts predict that Google's offering is not likely to spur the sort of stock-offering stampede that Netscape did.
"It will not be the Pied Piper," Menlow said. "It's not going to sound the all-clear for companies to go public irrespective of their financial health."
But a successful Google offering may help raise investor confidence in new issues by other profitable technology companies. Or so those companies hope. Staktek Holdings, a computer memory company, is looking to raise US$145 million through an initial offering next year.
The company, based in Austin, Texas, reported revenue of US$47 million last year, and a profit of US$11.5 million.
Not all the technology companies that have filed to go public in early 2004 have made a profit. Marchex, for instance, a relatively obscure online advertising company, hopes to raise US$35 million, despite losing money in 2002.
Likewise, Motive, an e-commerce service company with a recent loss of US$10.5 million, has plans to raise US$70 million, and Atheros Communications, a semiconductor maker that also had a loss last year, hopes to raise US$100 million.
But few analysts expect the public to become giddy about the new technology offerings.
"There are signs of a recovery, but we're not going anywhere near where we were in the late 1990s," Peterson said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique