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IPO Update: OnDisplay soars, C-Bridge and eGreetings also debut

OnDisplay closed up 49, or 175 percent, to 77 after it priced its initial public offering at $28 (£17) per share for trading Friday
Written by Tiffany Kary, Contributor

The company, which makes software that makes existing computer applications Internet-ready, earlier this week more than doubled the price range from the original $11 to $13 per share.

The offering of 3.5 million common shares is being underwritten by Robertson Stephens, Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown and SG Cowen.

For the nine months ended September 30, OnDisplay lost $9.8m on revenue of $4m, compared to a net loss of $5.8m on revenue of $1.8m for the same period in 1998. Most of that revenue came from software licenses and service fees from one suite of products, CenterStage. Three products were recently added to CenterStage.

Other offerings that rolled out Friday:

C-Bridge Internet Solutions closed up 24 1/16, or 150 percent, to 40 1/16 after it priced shares at $16 each, above their upwardly revised range of $12 to $14 a share. The e-business consultant raised its price range of its 4 million shares on offer from the original estimate of $8-$10 per share. After the offering there would be about 17.3 million shares outstanding in the company.

The company racked up net loss of $2.9m on revenue of $13.8m for the nine months ended September 30, compared to net loss of $3.4m on revenue of $3.2m for the same period in 1998.

The company is likely to do well based on the success of similar services companies that have made IPOs this year, but it is entering a crowded field; C-Bridge currently competes for client assignments and experienced personnel with companies such as Agency.com, iXL, Modem Media.Poppe Tyson, Razorfish and Viant, the company said in its filings with the SEC.

Underwriters of the IPO include Robertson Stephens, SG Cowen and SoundView Technology Group.

eGreetings Networks closed up only 9/16 to 10 9/16 after it priced 6 million shares at the top of an $8 to $10 range. Revenue for the nine months ending September 30 were $1.5m with a loss of $22 million. EGreetings gets most of its revenue from advertising and direct marketing, although its largest advertiser recently left.

eGreetings' largest shareholder Gibson is currently being acquired. EGreetings relies on Gibson Greetings for about 36 percent of its content. American Greetings, Inc. in a deal announced in November, however, is acquiring Gibson. American Greetings also is the parent company of AmericanGreetings.com, which competes with eGreetings. Once American Greetings is done acquiring Gibson, American Greetings may decide it doesn't want to own shares of a competitor. American Greetings could buy eGreetings outright or dish it off to another company.

Lead underwriter for the deal is Credit Suisse First Boston. Robertson Stephens and USB Piper Jaffray are co-managers.

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