FastNet gains 64 percent in IPO

FastNet (Nasdaq: FSST) jumped 64 percent after it priced 4 million shares of its common stock at $12 per share, the top of the $10-to $12 range.

Shares in the Internet service provider were up 7 11/16 to 19 11/16.

ING Baring Furman is the lead underwriter, with SoundView and FAC/Equities acting as co-managers.

Though this deal doesn't stand out much, it looks like a sturdy deal considering Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has been a long-time client, said Kennan Pollock of IPO Central.

For the nine months ended September 30, the company had net loss of $3.1 million on revenue of $5.8 million, compared to a net loss of $639 000 on revenue of $3.5 million for the same period in 1998.

The company said in its filings with the SEC that although its business strategy is to target small and medium sized enterprises, it currently derives a significant chunk of our revenues from a small number of our business customers, which are not small and medium sized enterprises. For example, Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) was 7 percent of total revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 1999, and Microsoft's WebTV Networks, Inc. accounted for 19 percent of revenue during that period.