Net Silicon Wows Wall Street

Computergram International, Sept 16, 1999

Net Silicon, a provider of embedded networking systems for incorporation into peripheral devices such as printers and copiers staged an impressive debut on Wall Street yesterday, shrugging off nervous pre-IPO share adjustments. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company had cut its offer share price to $7 from a revised range of $8 to $10. But the 5.3 million stocks making up a 40% stake in the firm started trading at $15 each - beating even the original pricing that was set at between $12 and $14 a share in its March filing with the Securities and Exchanges Commission.

The firm's shares stood at $12.37 late yesterday afternoon after earlier hitting $15.12, which gave the firm a market capitalization of $200.4m. More than 11.2 million shares changed hands - ranking Net Silicon the sixth most-actively traded stock on Nasdaq yesterday and reflecting investors' renewed appetite for net IPOs after a two-week hiatus. Net Silicon generated $36.8m from the IPO. As well as price jitters, the firm earlier postponed the IPO from August after net stocks tanked over the summer, and tweaked the deal's size by upping the number of shares on offer.

Net Silicon is a subsidiary of optical networking product manufacturer, Osicom Technologies Inc, based in Santa Monica, California. The firm lost $2.1m on revenue of $13.4m last year.