Ashford.com files for initial public offering
The e-commerce retailer of luxury products today became the latest Net start-up to jump on the IPO bandwagon.
Underwriters include E*Trade Securities, Goldman Sachs, BancBoston Robertson Stephens, and Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown.
"Since inception, we have incurred significant net losses and, for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1999, our net losses were $1.3 million," Ashford.com said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "We expect our net losses to increase and to generate negative cash flows for the foreseeable future."
Ashford.com's venture capitalists include Benchmark Capital Partners and Sequoia Capital. According to the regulatory filing, Benchmark owns about 35.5 percent of the company prior to the offering, and entities associated with Sequoia own 8.14 percent.
The company was incorporated in March 1998. It began selling products on the Web in April 1998.
The SEC filing disclosed that Ashford.com plans to extend its product offerings beyond watches. "We intend to enhance our product offerings by expanding into additional luxury and premium product categories that we believe present significant online market opportunities, including leather goods, sunglasses, fragrances, ties and scarves, and jewelry," the filing said.
It did not mention a proposed offering price for the shares of the number of shares to be issued.