Online Stock Seller Plans IPO of Its Own
Wit Capital Group Inc., an online securities firm, said it plans an initial public stock offering in the second quarter of this year.
New York-based Wit Capital was started in 1996 by Andrew Klein, after selling shares of his Spring Street Brewing Co. in the first online initial public offering. In the last year, Salomon Smith Barney Inc.’s former vice chairman, Robert Lessin, and other investment bankers joined the company to help build its business.
Wit has helped distribute shares online in more than 40 stock sales, including EarthWeb Inc., Tweeter Home Entertainment Group Inc., Cyberian Outpost Inc. and the Cleveland Indians Baseball Co. Last month, Wit sold 2% of the shares offered by Prodigy Communications Corp. and VerticalNet Inc. in their IPOs.
The market for Internet stocks generally and online financial services in particular is hot. The Interactive Week Internet index is up 8% this month and 23% for the year.
