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Tech Notebook: IPO market softening
Thursday, October 12, 2000 By Bob Starzynski, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Initial public offerings around the country in the third quarter lagged those posted in the same quarter last year, according to the National Venture Capital Association and Venture Economics.
Although IPOs in the most recent quarter fell to 143 from 157 in the third quarter of 1999, the size of this year's deals rose significantly. The average offering size in the most recent quarter was $93.5 million, compared with $69.7 million in last year's third quarter.
But larger deals does not mean larger companies.
Instead, companies in the most recent quarter sold off a larger chunk of their holdings to the public market. A year ago, companies sold an average of 15 percent of their shares to the public. This past quarter, companies sold an average of 39 percent of their shares. This has allowed companies to raise more money, but they have retained less ownership in the process.
CMU tech job fair
A Carnegie Mellon University student group will host its second-annual Start-up Job Fair tomorrow, with 90 technology companies meeting with job candidates.
The host the Engineering Students Initiative in Technology Entrepreneurship, expects between 1,600 and 2,000 students from Pittsburgh area universities.
Rahul Mangharam, a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering at CMU and president of the student group, said the companies come from across the country, with roughly 30 from Pennsylvania and 25 from California.
The event has grown since last year, Mangharam said, when 40 companies exhibited for 900 students.
Held at the University Center Gym from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the event should be different from typical technology job fairs. Usually established companies send recruiters to answer questions and screen candidates. At tomorrow's fair, most of the companies are small developers of advanced technologies and will be represented by CEOs and company founders, according to Mangharam.
"These are not just your average dot.com companies represented," he said.
And zCamp at Pitt
Students who have the entrepreneurial spirit but would rather start their own company have another option this weekend -- University zCamp.
Scheduled from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the William Pitt Union on the University of Pittsburgh campus, zCamp will include speeches and panel discussions on how to launch your own company.
The host of the event, technology incubator Zlingshot, put together a similar event in May that was geared to a more general audience.
Speakers will be: Mayor Tom Murphy; Tom Gill, former CEO of Fore Systems; Dave Nelsen, CEO of CoManage; Astro Teller, CEO of BodyMedia.com; Bill Guttman, CEO of printCafe; and Kevin Coleman, chief strategist of Netscape.
Casey Smith, CEO of Zlingshot expects at least 400, with roughly two-thirds being students from area colleges.
There will be sessions on presenting a business plan, raising capital, and marketing, Smith said. "But we will also have a talk at the beginning of the day to introduce some of the terminology so everyone is on the same page."
Microsoft gun in town
The number three executive at Microsoft -- after chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer -- will be in Pittsburgh tomorrow to meet with clients and to speak with two local groups.
Chief Operating Officer Robert Herbold will be discussing his company's new .Net strategy. He will be addressing a Pittsburgh Technology Council luncheon and then will speak with the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh in the afternoon.
"The Internet today represents a pretty static state of capabilities," he said yesterday. "You have to log onto the Internet and search for information you want. We want to give people a platform where they can get information from the Internet without even realizing that they are going to the Internet.
"People use a number of devices -- phones, pocket PCs and desktop PCs -- to communicate. Your [computer] server needs to be smart enough to know when you're using each of those devices and keep track of where you are so that you can get information without a hassle, wherever you are.
"It's not the funny commands of DOS, or the visual symbols of Windows. It's real interaction."
Herbold said that these computer visions will turn into Microsoft products over the next two years.
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