Pair of Small Firms Will Use Internet, Not Brokers, to Trade

Bypassing traditional stockbrokers, two small companies have turned to the Internet to sell their shares to the public, and more could follow.

Beginning Friday, investors will be able to trade shares in New York-based microbrewer Spring Street Brewing Co. on the firm’s World Wide Web site. The company launched a stock offering over the Internet last year; its trading mechanism can be found on its Web site (https://www.interport.net/witbeer).

Also Friday, Interactive Holdings Corp. will launch an online share issue at https://www.thevine.com/ihchome.htm.

“This is a new development and a great deal of progress for a small company wanting to raise money,” Spring Street founder Andrew Klein said.

Interactive Holdings, a New York-based owner and developer of interactive Internet and TV programming, plans to sell 200,000 shares at $10 each.

Market professionals said the practice could spread, but warned that investors would be taking greater risks.