Where Are the IPOs of Yesteryear?

By Lev Grossman Thursday, May 27, 1999
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"The party's over," wrote one visitor to the bulletin boards at Silicon Investor yesterday, and even veteran financial and technology journalists were showing signs of nostalgia for those heady times that seem like only a few weeks ago which they were. Up until yesterday, Internet companies that went public could look forward to seeing their share prices pop up like champagne corks, but suddenly .com IPOs are acting like plain-old rational stocks again.

A total of five Internet companies went public yesterday. One, Edgar Online, gained only a sixteenth of a point. Two more, the Hispanic content provider StarMedia Network and the online broker DLJdirect, performed respectably but not spectacularly, rising more than 50%. And the last two, Juno Online, an ISP (Internet service provider), and ZipLink, which sells services to ISPs, actually lost 11% and 12% respectively. And let's not even mention the debut of barnesandnoble.com, which gained a mere 27% on Tuesday. MORE >>