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Thin IPO pickings ahead
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April 11, 1999: 5:10 p.m. ET
Internet offerings are lean this week, opening a window for finance, biotech
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - If this week's calendar of initial public stock offerings looks a lot like last week's, it's because several of the companies in the pipeline earlier delayed their debuts and now are making another try.
Among these familiar names are plastic manufacturer International Smart Sourcing, which plans to launch 1.2 million shares at $4.50 under the ticker symbol "ISMT," and medical device maker Implant Sciences, which is set to price a million "IMPL" shares between $7 and $8.50.
Log On ramps up again
Also on the runway is Internet service provider Log On America, which delayed its two-million-share debut offering from last week to some time this week.
The deal is the second recent offering led by underwriter Dirks & Co. The first, last May's Ophidian Pharmaceuticals (OPHD), probably wouldn't count as a success, with shares of the company plunging 82 percent in its 11 months of public trading.
Log On has the seemingly unrelenting lure of the Internet behind it, while the company's strategic positioning of itself as a full-range data and local telephone provider should help set it apart from a pack of competitors that includes America Online (AOL), Mindspring (MSPG) and Earthlink (ELNK).
The company plans to float its shares under ticker symbol "LOAX," at a starting price of $10.
Where are the Web plays?
Only one fresh player is joining Log On in the Internet pipeline this week, contributing to the IPO market's relative lack of inspiration. WorldGate Communications provides Internet-through-television services similar to those currently offered through WebTV and other set-top providers.
Compared to conventional, computer access-based Internet providers, WorldGate offers consumers low prices. Start-up fees are as low as $5 and subscription rates ranging from $4 to $16, compared to equivalent rates of $10 to $20 for computer-based access.
The company plans to offer 4.5 million shares at a starting price between $12 and $14. Its proposed ticker symbol is "WGAT."
Non-Nets dare to debut
Rounding out the IPO calendar are a number of medical and financial firms, as well as an auctioneer and a non-Internet software maker. While none of these deals is likely to enjoy the instant-blockbuster popularity of most Internet debuts, they still may garner significant interest in the otherwise quiet week.
Between the two financial debuts in the pipe, CompuCredit is probably the more seductive to technology-crazed investors. The company is best known as the issuer of Aspire Visa credit cards, relying heavily on information technology to more efficiently lure the fickle consumer credit market.
StanCorp Financial Group is both more massive and more conservative, with a full $1.2 billion in revenue deriving from its various life and disability insurance businesses. The company's life insurance unit, Standard Life Insurance, is currently undergoing a demutualization process, removing direct ownership from the hands of its policyholders in order to become a publicly traded company.
StanCorp plans to price 14.74 million shares between $20 and $29 under the ticker symbol "SFG," while CompuCredit plans a more modest offering of 8.125 million "CCRT" shares between $15 and $17.
From life insurance to medical care, Provantage Health Systems provides pharmaceutical and medical information data services to 3,500 corporate customers, covering in turn about 4.5 million consumer accounts. Four underwriters led by Merrill Lynch will price 5.3 million shares under ticker symbol "PVHS" at a starting level of $16 to $18.
Clontech Laboratories will bring the siren call of biotechnology, investors' great love before Internet stocks, back to the IPO market when it prices its $73 million offering some time this week. The company manufactures genetic-research tools for both academic and corporate applications, a market that has favored Clontech with 33 percent compound revenue growth since 1994.
Lead underwriter BT Alex. Brown has yet to set either the size or initial price bracket for the offering. The proposed ticker symbol is "CLON."
Neither fish nor fowl
The last two offerings scheduled for this week are enterprise software firm Sagent Technology, set to price 5 million "SGNT" shares between $7 and $9, and fine arts auction house Butterfield & Butterfield.
Sagent faces a difficult market climate for enterprise software companies, which have seen an avalanche of sagging profits and analyst downgrades in recent days as major clients drag their feet on new business ahead of possible millennium-oriented computer problems in 1999-2000.
However, the company does offer a Web-based information architecture that may allow it access to the privileged world of Internet IPOs. If so, Sagent would enjoy a more enthusiastic response from investors than its competitors' stock performance would indicate.
Butterfield & Butterfield, on the other hand, can look back on the successful performance of fellow art-auctioneer Sotheby's (BID), which has soared in recent months in parallel with shares of Internet upstarts uBid (UBID) and eBay (EBAY).
Butterfield & Butterfield already has gotten into the explosive online auctions business, having explored an alliance with eBay among other Web sites and opening its own bidding to Internet transactions in January.
When it auctions itself off this week, the company will put 1.5 million shares on the block under lot "BFLD." Opening bid will be $10 to $12. 
-- by staff writer Robert Scott Martin
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