NEW YORK – iVillage Inc., an online women’s network, filed to go public December 11. The initial public offering’s size and the stock’s proposed filing range had not been determined at press time.
Venture backers include America Online Inc., CIBC Wood Gundy Ventures, Cox Interactive Media Inc., Rho Management Trust I and Tenet Healthcare Corp. At press time, no shareholders planned to sell any stock.
iVillage, a Web site geared toward women, consists of 12 channels focusing on topics such as family, health, work, money, food, relationships, shopping and travel. The site offers chat rooms, e-mail, message boards and other services. The company claims that it is one of the most demographically-targeted Internet sites, with well more than half of its audience consisting of women in the 25- to 49-year-old age range. iVillage hopes to leverage its niche audience by establishing revenue-producing e-commerce relationships similar to its existing alliances with Amazon.com Inc., N2K Inc. and 1-800-Flowers Inc.
Proceeds from the offering, underwritten by Goldman, Sachs & Co. Inc., Credit Suisse First Boston and Hambrecht & Quist, will be used for brand promotion, expansion of sales and marketing, acquisitions and expansion.
The company has never been profitable, losing $32.4 million in the first nine months of 1998 and $21.3 million in 1997.
Lori Koffman, a managing director of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s merchant banking division, and William Killen Jr., a vice president of new media development at Cox Enterprises Inc., joined iVillage’s board of directors in May 1997, followed by followed by Habib Kairouz, a managing director of Rho Management Co. Inc., in March 1998 and Lennert Leader, president of America Online Investments, in July 1998.
iVillage – Selected Financial
(in thousands, except per share data)
July 1,1995
(inception) Year Ended December 31, Nine Months Ended September 30
to December 31, 1995 1996 1997 1997 1998
Revenue – 732 6,019 3,662 9,126
Net loss – 1,638 -9,683 -21,301 -14,509 -32,449
Net loss per share
-0.50 -2.97 -4.55 -3.28 -5.21
