Ticker Talk

The weak IPO market scared off more companies Thursday as AltaVista, a Web search provider owned by Internet venture investor CMGI Inc. (ticker symbol: CMGI), and Dean & DeLuca Inc., owner of gourmet food stores in New York and elsewhere, withdrew plans for initial public offerings. “There’s really no point in them pushing ahead with it,” Anurag Pandit, co-manager of the John Hancock Small-Cap Growth Fund, said of Palo Alto-based AltaVista, which last year postponed its IPO because of the already rocky market. “People just aren’t finding these sorts of stocks attractive right now.” Like the scores of other companies that have recently shelved IPO plans, AltaVista blamed “continuing unfavorable conditions in the financial markets.” At least two other Internet companies pulled their sales Thursday--Portland, Ore.-based Emerald Delaware Inc. and Blaxxun Interactive, a German firm also from the CMGI stable. Analysts, meanwhile, called Dean & DeLuca a victim of the broader economy. “When the economy is going well, through the wealth effect, it’s these sorts of companies that enjoy the benefits,” said Yusuf Haque, an IPO analyst with 123Jump.com. “However, when things pull back, people spend less on those items. Dean & DeLuca is simply not diversified enough to protect itself [from] any systematic shocks to the economy.”