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Ticketmaster IPO soars
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December 3, 1998: 8:30 p.m. ET
CEO Conn says online ticket agent-city guide thrives on Diller's vision
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Riding a wave of wildly successful Internet initial public offerings, Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch soared in its first day of trading Thursday.
The Web-based ticket agency and city guide soared to 40-1/4 from an initial offering price of 14. Ticketmaster (TMCS) raised $98 million from the IPO after pricing the shares late Wednesday.
Ticketmaster and CitySearch merged in August, with cable network USA Networks Inc. (USAI) holding a 62.5-percent stake in the unit.
Many analysts have pointed to one reason for such interest in Ticketmaster: Barry Diller, USA Networks chairman. Charles Conn, chief executive officer of the combined company, doesn't dispute that theory.
"Mr. Diller's vision for joining together local information and local commerce has been a real boost to the company," he said. [208K WAV] or [208K AIFF]
Though Ticketmaster faces stiff competition in the online city guide arena, Conn said his company has differentiated itself well from its rivals.
"Many city guides are actually amalgamations of hypertext links to other people's content," he said. "Our business model is about local transactions and selling Web sites to medium-size businesses."
Though Ticketmaster's first day didn't quite match up with other recent Internet IPOs, such as theglobe.com inc.'s (TGLO) November debut, it did add fuel to the argument that Internet IPOs are grossly overvalued, especially considering most of the companies have yet to turn a profit.
Analyst forecasts call for Ticketmaster to be profitable in 2001.
Diller, however, has defended the valuations, noting that earnings for many of these companies are five to 10 years down the road, and pricing must take into account their future potential.
Looking ahead to Ticketmaster's future, Conn said the company will likely leverage some of Diller's media holdings, such as USA Networks, Home Shopping Network and the Internet Shopping Network. [145K WAV] or [145K AIFF] 
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