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Bookham Tech - a star IPO
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April 11, 2000: 6:23 p.m. ET
Maker of fiber-optic network components soars; other IPOs shunned
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Bookham Technology more than tripled in its market debut Tuesday while investors were cool to a flurry of other initial public offerings hitting Wall Street.
The Abingdon, England-based company, which designs optical components for fiber-optic networks, climbed as high as 50-5/8 before closing at 47-7/8. Bookham priced 19.4 million American Depositary Receipts at $15.83 per share Tuesday morning, slightly above its expected range.
 "Bookham Technology brings back an old theme from last year, which is the fiber optics for telecommunications networking," David Menlow, president of IPOFinancial.com, told CNNfn. "And this is a sector that has not received the saturation that virtually every other Internet sector has."
Investor interest in Bookham (BKHMV: Research, Estimates) was particularly high because of the company's ability to combine several optical components, such as lasers, lenses and filters, all on one chip, eliminating the need for companies to manufacture them separately.
The company's top institutional investors include: Cisco Systems Corp. (CSCO: Research, Estimates); Nortel Networks Corp. (NT: Research, Estimates); and Scientific-Atlanta (SFA: Research, Estimates).
Mixed reviews
Four other companies began trading for the first time Tuesday, including two offerings held over from last week, but only two managed to hold on to their early gains.
Despite pricing its offering on the low end of its expected price range, semiconductor component manufacturer Nova Measuring Instruments (NVMI: Research, Estimates) waded in higher ground after hitting the open market.
Nova ended the session at 21-15/16, up about 22 percent from the company's pricing level of $18 per share. Analysts said demand for the offering was running particularly high because the company only offered 3.2 million shares to the public.
Also trading on higher ground was Exelixis Inc. (EXEL: Research, Estimates), a bioengineering research company that managed to avoid the recent troubles experienced by biotechnology firms trying to go public.
Exelixis hit a high of 19 and closed at 15-3/16, up some 17 percent from its pricing level of $13 per share. Exelixis' fortunes were aided by the company's proprietary technology, which identifies drugs for pharmaceutical and agrochemical companies.
Bayer, Pharmacia Corp. (PHA: Research, Estimates) and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY: Research, Estimates) have all signed Exelixis to research contracts.
DDI a dud?
Among the day's more troubled debuts was DDI Corp. (DDIC: Research, Estimates), expected to be one of the week's largest offerings.
The company, which provides time-critical electronic design and manufacturing services, primarily for the communications and network equipment industries, priced 14.7 million shares late Monday at $14 per share, below its expected range, raising $205.7 million.
Investors remained unexcited after the shares hit the market as well. The stock, which struggled to a high of 14-1/4, closed at 11-1/4, down about 20 percent.
Also failing to excite investors was Healthstream Inc. (HSTM: Research, Estimates), an Internet-based developer of training content for the health care industry which, like Exelixis, chose not to price amid last week's market volatility.
The Nashville, Tenn.-based company priced five million shares at $9 each late Monday, well below its expected range of $11 to $13 per share. The company's downward momentum continued Tuesday as investors further depreciated the stock, sending it down 1/2, or 5 percent, to close at 8-1/2. 
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