You Call That Support?

IPO Pros has the market covered: Sundays: This Week in IPOs Tuesdays: This Week's Secondaries Wednesdays: Upcoming Lockup Expirations Fridays: The Quiet Period

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Open up the floodgates, will ya? January is going to be a dirty, dirty month for lockup expirations. I suggest you pay very close attention to the numbers and dates listed below.

Take a good look at Support.com (SPRT:Nasdaq - news - boards). Like most of the deals I write about, this name has had a difficult time keeping its face out of the quicksand. The company went public on July 17 at $14, and saw a first-day gain of 138.4%. Not bad for anyone flipping the stock, but insiders restricted by the lockup weren't so lucky. On Tuesday, Support.com dipped to just above its IPO price, and Wednesday it stayed there, closing at $13.50. If you were a newly paroled insider, what would you be doing right now? Selling? I would think so.

A little piece of advice for those of you who are playing these lockup expirations. Make note of the average trading volume on these names for at least a week before the lockup expiration. We've noticed a clear relationship between a sudden jump in trading volume and hard downward pressure on these stocks' prices. With the markets heading lower, and no end to the carnage in sight, you can believe that insiders will be doing all they can to preserve what's left of their net worth. Think of them as dump trucks, backing up to these already fragile Nasdaq names and pulling the handle marked "Sell."

Here's this week's list:

(For more on lockups and why they matter, check out my primer on the subject. A more recent take on Lockups appears here. )

Lockup End	Deal Name		Released	Outstanding
1/7/01	ENTEGRIS (ENTG:Nasdaq)		52,358,000	68,424,736
	Merrill Lynch	SEC Filings	76.52%*	News
1/8/01	DIVINE INTERVENTURES (DVIN:Nasdaq)		-	-
	Robertson Stephens	SEC Filings	-*	News
1/8/01	TRITON NETWORK SYSTEMS (TNSI:Nasdaq)		23,599,666	34,860,048
	CS First Boston	SEC Filings	67.70%*	News
1/9/01	I MANY (IMNY:Nasdaq)		8,000,000	32,047,485
	Robertson Stephens	SEC Filings	24.96%*	News
1/9/01	NETWORK ENGINES (NENG:Nasdaq)		18,873,976	34,772,969
	Donaldson Lufkin	SEC Filings	54.28%*	News
1/9/01	SUNRISE TELECOM (SRTI:Nasdaq)		45,080,153	49,892,779
	Chase H and Q	SEC Filings	90.35%*	News
1/10/01	OMNIVISION TECHNOLOGIES (OVTI:Nasdaq)		16,190,551	21,962,083
	Robertson Stephens	SEC Filings	73.72%*	News
1/10/01	PAIN THERAPEUTICS (PTIE:Nasdaq)		20,967,091	26,717,716
	Thomas Weisel	SEC Filings	78.48%*	News
1/14/01	SUPPORT.COM (SPRT:Nasdaq)		28,854,034	33,241,684
	CS First Boston	SEC Filings	86.80%*	News
1/14/01	TRANSGENOMIC (TBIO:Nasdaq)		14,093,906	21,436,840
	Chase H and Q	SEC Filings	65.75%*	News
1/15/01	AIRSPAN NETWORKS (AIRN:Nasdaq)		27,564,181	34,673,814
	CS First Boston	SEC Filings	79.50%*	News
1/15/01	ARGONAUT TECHNOLOGIES (AGNT:Nasdaq)		12,377,213	18,251,629
	UBS Warburg	SEC Filings	67.81%*	News
1/15/01	VASCULAR SOLUTIONS (VASC:Nasdaq)		8,665,118	13,093,148
	Salo Smith Barney	SEC Filings	66.18%*	News
1/16/01	CORIO (CRIO:Nasdaq)		23,859,572	49,681,907
	Goldman Sachs	SEC Filings	48.02%*	News
1/16/01	SMTC (SMTX:Nasdaq)		15,013,679	26,013,679
	Lehman Brothers	SEC Filings	57.71%*	News
1/16/01	TALARIAN (TALR:Nasdaq)		12,885,783	18,976,441
	Lehman Brothers	SEC Filings	67.90%*	News
1/16/01	VARIAGENICS (VGNX:Nasdaq)		16,353,854	23,108,296
	CS First Boston	SEC Filings	70.77%*	News
Source ipoPros.com			* Released shares as a percentage of outstanding.

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Ben Holmes is the founder of ipoPros.com, a Boulder, Colo.-based research boutique (now a wholly owned subsidiary of TheStreet.com) specializing in the analysis of equity syndicate offerings. This column is not meant as investment advice; it is instead meant to provide insight into the methods of new and secondary offerings. Neither Holmes nor his firm has entered indications of interest in any of the companies discussed in this column. Holmes' This Week in IPOs column appears Sundays, This Week's Secondaries appears Tuesdays, Upcoming Lockup Expirations appears Wednesdays and The Quiet Period appears on Fridays. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Holmes appreciates your feedback and invites you to send it to Ben Holmes.