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IPO Roundup: Intersil surges in market debut

2 min read

Chipmaker Intersil Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: ISIL) gained 29 to 54 after it priced at $25 a share for its IPO Friday.

Intersil priced well above the raised range of $18 to $20.

The offering was expected to do well, with investors eager to land a slice of the growing semiconductor market that is fueling a boom in laptops, cellular phones and Palm Pilots. The company is also an established player, with more than $500 million in sales for fiscal 1999, said Kenan Pollack, of IPO Central at Hoover's Online.

Intersil plans to offer 20 million shares, or a roughly 22 percent stake, in a deal underwritten by Credit Suisse First Boston, Salomon Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch, Robertson Stephens and SG Cowen.

Given the large size of the offering, Pollack said Intersil would likely not see an astronomical first-day gains, but it should thrive in the long-term.

Intersil Holding Corp. was formed last August through a series of transactions in which the company and its wholly-owned subsidiary Intersil bought the semiconductor business of Harris Corp. (NYSE: HRS). Insteril's client list includes heavyweights like Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) and 3Com (Nasdaq: COMS).

Intersil posted a net loss of $16.4 million on revenue of $292.0 million for the six months ended December 31, 1999.

Competitors for the company include Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI), Burr Brown (Nasdaq: BBRC), Linear Technology (Nasdaq: LLTC), Semtech (Nasdaq: SMTC), as well as Lucent (NYS: LU), Philips (NYSE: PHG), and Proxim (Nasdaq: PROX) in its wireless business.

Among other IPOs Friday:

  • DigitalThink (Nasdaq: DTHK) added 15 to 29 after it offered 4.4 million shares at $14, the top of its increased price range.

    The company, which provides online learning courses and services, has shown strong revenue growth. For the quarter ending June 30, 1999 sales were $1.17 million. For the quarter ending Sept. 30, sales jumped to $2.13 million. For the quarter ending Dec. 31, sales hit $3.17 million. But the company also had an accumulated deficit of $34.1 million as of Dec. 31.

    Other players in the field of online learning include Click2learn.com (Nasdaq: CLKS), SmartForce (Nasdaq: SMTF) SkillSoft (Nasdaq: SKIL), Learning Tree (Nasdaq: LTRE), and Fatbrain.com (Nasdaq: FATB).

    The offering is underwritten by Credit Suisse First Boston.

  • Online hotel room reseller, Hotel Reservations (Nasdaq: ROOM), was up 10 to 26 after it priced 4.5 million share at $16 each, above the original $11-13 range.

    "USA Networks (Nasdaq: USAI) has a big piece in the company, and its growth curve is looking strong with 70 percent revenue growth over the last 3 years," said David Menlow of IPOfinancial.com.

    The company had a net loss of $8.5 million on revenue of $161 million for the year ended December 31.

    Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette is the lead manager for the offering. Allen & Company, Bear Stearns, Thomas Weisel Partners LLC and DLJdirect are acting as co-managers.

    -- Reuters contributed to this report.