JNI Technologies and InterTrust leap in debut
Two of the week's hottest IPOs blasted off Wednesday. JNI Technologies (Nasdaq: JNIC) jumped 121 percent, and InterTrust Technologies (Nasdaq: ITRU) was up 126 percent. Meanwhile, Akamai (Proposed ticker: AKAM) upped its price range.
JNI shares were up 23 to 42, after they priced at $19, above an upwardly revised range of $15 - $17.
The company is "riding a growth curve in fibre channel," said Francis Gaskins of the IPO Desktop. "Its revenue growth is on a hockey stick, the likes of which you see in the storage area network growth category," Gaskins said.
The company had revenue of $25.8 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, versus $6.9 million in the previous year. And it actually posted a profit -- JNI had $2.2 million in net income for the nine-month period.
The original estimated price range for the 4.9 million share offering was $12 to $14 each. Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette is the lead underwriter, Bear Stearns and Hambrecht & Quist are co-managers.
The company designs fibre channel hardware and software products to connect servers and data storage devices to form storage area networks, or SANs. IDC forecasts that the market for products based on fibre channel technology will grow from about $2 billion in 1998 to $15 billion by 2002.
Intertrust shares were up 22 11/16 to 40 11/16. Shares priced at $18 each, above their upwardly revised range of $15-$17. Demand for the offering came despite a meager $309,000 in revenue for the six months ended June 30.
The company's digital rights management technology helps protect download and distribution of any information that can be put into digital form, such as music, videos, software, games, publishing, business information, and images.