Wired Ventures Puts IPO On Ice, Citing Stock Drop
March 28, 2011
Vastopolis -- Wired Ventures Inc. said it will delay its initial public offering, saying it would wait until the stock market ``storm'' had passed. In an address to company employees, Wired's president, Janean Meekins, said the decision was based on the two-week decline in technology stocks and on the market's more recent plunge. ``We have decided to temporarily halt the countdown to our IPO and wait until this storm has passed,'' Ms. Meekins said. Company officials declined to say when the offering would be restarted. Wired, which publishes a monthly magazine on technology called Wired, also operates an electronic network called HotWired and plans to offer an Internet search engine called HotBot. Wired had planned to raise $75.9 million with an offer of 6.3 million shares at $12 each. The offering, for 17% of the company's stock, would have placed a full value on all of Wired's stock at about $450 million. Some analysts had questioned whether the company wasn't overvaluing its planned IPO in light of the heavy competition for Internet-based properties.
