Akamai Technologies Plans IPO After Striking Deal With Cisco

A handful of other companies are also going public. Plus EchoStar in El Paso is hiring.

Author:: Tara Murphy
Publish date:: Aug 20, 1999 8:09 PM EDT

Akamai Technologies

said it plans to raise more than $86 million in an initial public offering. The provider of Internet content delivery service plans to use the offerings profits for working capital and general corporate business. Akamai said it forged a pact with

Cisco Systems

(CSCO) - Get Report

earlier this month to develop new content routing and switching. Cisco bought shares of Akamai's Series E convertible preferred stock for about $49 million this month.

Morgan Stanley

Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette

Salomon Smith Barney

and

Thomas Weisel

are serving as the deal's underwriters.

In other postclose news (earnings estimates from

First Call

; earnings reported on a diluted basis unless otherwise specified):

Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures

DBT Online

said it has inked a deal to pay $25 million plus warrants to

Thomson

(TOC)

for

Information America's

online public records business. DBT said the acquisition will cost the company $25 million in cash plus 329,172 DBT warrants with a strike price of $52.50 and duration of 18 months. A spokesperson for the company said that the purchase will negatively affect EPS for 1999 and 2000, but it expects revenues to increase over the long term. Separately, DBT said it has filed a 5.7 million share offering with the

Securities and Exchange Commission

Offerings and stock actions

Aether Systems

said it has filed a $75 million initial public offering with the SEC. The real-time data services provider promotes

Reuters MarketClip

service, which offers price quotes and news updates and

TradeRunner

, a real-time wireless trading system to online customers of

DiscoverBrokerage

. According to its red herring, Aether plans to provide similar services to

Charles Schwab

(SCH)

and other online brokers. Aether will use $12.5 million of the offering proceeds to buy

Mobeo

, a foreign exchange data provider to wireless customers.

Merrill Lynch

BancBoston Robertson Stephens

, DLJ and

U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray

Bluestone Software

filed with the SEC for a 4 million common share IPO that could rake in an estimated $55.2 million. The Sapphire/Web creator expects its offering to price between $11 to $13 a share and plans to direct its proceeds toward product development. The underwriters, led by

Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown

, were granted a 30-day option to buy an additional 600,000 shares at the offering's initial price.

Software engineering firm

Cysive

said it has filed a $60 million initial public offering with the SEC. According to its preliminary prospectus, Cysive will use the offering proceeds to help businesses sell their products through the Internet. The deal is being managed by Thomas Weisel,

First Union Capital Markets

and

Friedman Billings Ramsey

Miscellany

EchoStar Communications

(DISH) - Get Report

unveiled plans to open its fourth customer service center in El Paso, Texas, creating 2,000 jobs and increasing its staff by 50%. The satellite television company, which currently employs 4,000 people, said it plans to hire an initial 350 inbound sales and customer service representatives for the new facility.