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Lante plans IPO, teams with Dell

Lante plans to raise up to $50 million in an initial public offering and that it has formed a partnership with Dell Computer, according to a prospectus filed with the SEC.

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Lante today said it plans to raise up to $50 million in an initial public offering and that it has formed a partnership with Dell Computer, according to a prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Pricing of the shares and the amount being offered in the consulting firm's IPO were not disclosed.

The company also said it recently entered into a strategic relationship with Dell, according to the filing with the SEC. As part of the deal, Dell has agreed to purchase 2 million shares of Lante's common stock. Dell has also agreed to provide Lante with at least $40 million worth of business over five years.

In addition to stock options allotted for Lante chief executive officer Rudy Puryear and other members of the executive management team, about 2.4 million shares are held by Dell and 600,000 shares are held by chief executive Michel Dell individually, according to the filing. Prior to the offering, Dell held an 8.94 percent stake in Lante.

Lante, which focuses mainly on business-to-business e-commerce projects, competes in the lucrative Web services market against companies including Sapient, Proxicom, Scient and a host of others, who each provide a wide range of professional services, including Web site development, business strategy, and integration work. Most of these start-ups, which have all gone public in the past nine months, have enjoyed successful runs on Wall Street.

Lante said it intends to use money raised through its IPO for marketing, recruiting, hiring, upgrading its information systems, and expanding into new markets.

Based in Chicago, Lante, which has more than 300 employees, has offices in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston and Charlotte. Its clients include start-ups beautyjungle.com, Chempoint.com and Microsoft.

Credit Suisse First Boston will act as lead underwriter for the offering, the company said. Investment bankers Deutsche Banc Alex.Brown, Thomas Weisel Partners and Friedman Billings Ramsey will be comanagers.

Lante, which posted $21.3 million in revenues for the first nine months of 1999, will trade under the ticker symbol "LNTE."