Net Stocks Unchained

Get ready. The chains are coming off the Internet lockups.

Over the next five months, up to 236 million shares in newly public Internet companies, worth about $14 billion at current prices, will be freed from post-IPO trading restrictions. Each of these stocks, say buy-siders, could face a noticeable decline in its share price in the weeks leading up to the lock-up's end -- the moment when executives and other pre-IPO shareholders can start selling their holdings. These lockup expirations -- along with forthcoming Internet IPOs and secondary offerings by companies already on the market -- could slow the ascent of the Internet sector as a whole. ...