MyPoints.com files for IPO
The consumer-rewards online marketing company hopes to raise up to $69 million in an initial public offering.
The company, which changed its name from Intellipost last month, derives revenue from email and Web-based programs that allow consumers to give demographic information in exchange for rewards. The MyPoints database contains more than 2 million consumer profiles, the company said in its S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Among MyPoints' participating advertisers and merchants are eBay, barnesandnoble.com, Disney and Macy's.
MyPoints is the first of a host of startups that offer rewards programs, including Cybergold and Netcentives, to file for an IPO. Internet IPOs have received a warm welcome on Wall Street in recent months; this week, airline ticket retailer Priceline saw its shares rise 53 points to 69 in its first day of trading.
The deal's underwriters include Bear Stearns, BancBoston Robertson Stephens, Salomon Smith Barney and Wit Capital. The company did not say how many shares it would offer to the public, nor did it specify an offering price per share.
MyPoints, which acquired some rewards program businesses from Experian in January, reported a net loss of $17.7 million on revenues of $1.3 million, on a pro forma basis (including financial results of the recently acquisitions). The company said in its filing that it expects to increase marketing costs, and "as a result, we expect increases in our net losses and negative cash flows for the next several quarters" and is projecting net losses at least through 2001.
On a non-adjusted basis, MyPoints' net loss for 1998 was $8.3 million, on $1.28 million in revenue, compared to a loss of $2.9 million on $151,000 in revenue in 1997. The company's accumulated deficit as of December 31 was $11.2 million.
Although MyPoints doesn't derive more than 10 percent of its revenues from any one advertiser, the company said, its four largest customers provided about 30 percent of total revenues in 1998.
The company also develops private-label rewards programs, with customers such as Prodigy and NextCard Internet Visa. In December, the company signed a deal to develop a MyPoints program for Sweden Post, the Swedish postal service.
MyPoints 28-year-old CEO, Steven Markowitz, founded the company in 1996. Major investors include Direct Marketing Technology, Long Island Venture Fund, S-7 Associates, Primedia Ventures, Auber Investments and Applewood Associates.