iPrint and FirstWorld rise on first day

iPrint.com Inc. (Nasdaq: IPRT) priced shares at $10 each, the top of its $8-10 estimated range, for trading Wednesday.

The offering of 4.5 million is being underwritten by Credit Suisse First Boston.

iPrint.com is an online printing service company which is "the next generation Kinko's" said Kenan Pollack of IPO Central. The offering should do well, Pollack said, because the company is a first mover in this area and used an aggressive marketing campaign to become almost a brand name. "They'll probably have to be aggressive in making partnerships to succeed down the road, he added.

Like most new Internet offerings, iPrint's losses outweigh its revenue. For 1999, iPrint had a loss of $13.4 million on revenue of $3.3 million, compared to a net loss of $2.3 million on revenue of $566,000 in 1998.

iPrint competes primarily in the short-run, mass market printing industry. It recently started custom printing services for small numbers of orders from larger customers. In the online printing industry, the company competes with traditional printing shops such as Taylor Corporation and Discount Labels, which have developed online websites. It expects to face competition from Kinkos in the future.

FirstWorld Communications, Inc.

(Nasdaq: FWIS) also announced an initial public offering of 10 million shares at $17 a piece, above its original range of $15 to $17 a share.

The company, which provides network-based Internet, data and communications services, had a net loss of $114 million on revenue of $64.1 million in 1999, compared to a loss of $106 million on revenue of $54.5 million in 1998.

Among FirstWorld's competitors are players in the markets for web integration and consulting, including USWeb/CKS (Nasdaq: USWB), Sapient (Nasdaq: SAPE), Electronic Data Services (NYSE: EDS) and IBM (NYSE: IBM).

The managing underwriters of the offering are Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, Paine Webber and Fidelity Capital Markets.