Barnesandnoble.com Looks to Raise $200M in IPO
Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 3/29/1999
By selling a 15%-20% interest in Barnesandnoble.com to the public (News, March 22), executives at the online retailer hope to raise as much as $200 million, according to the company's preliminary prospectus. Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, lead underwriters for the offering, have yet to determine how many shares will be offered to the public and at what price.As previously announced, Barnesandnoble.com will use the proceeds to fund anticipated operating losses, including sales and marketing expenses, enhancements to the company's online stores and other working capital. In addition, Barnesandnoble. com may use the proceeds to acquire or invest in complementary businesses, technologies, services or products. The company has already added magazines and software items to its site and plans a full rollout of music and video products in 1999.
After the IPO becomes effective, Barnesandnoble.com will operate on a calendar basis rather than having its fiscal year end on the last business day in January. As a result, the offering document presents some slightly different figures for the online retailer than had been previously released by Barnes &Noble. For calendar 1998, Barnesandnoble.com had sales of $61.8 million, compared to sales of $11.9 million in the previous year. The net loss was $83.1 million, and the company has an accumulated deficit of $96.7 million.
Because Barnesandnoble.com expects to significantly increase its investments in developing the site, the company reported that for the foreseeable future it anticipates that it will continue to incur losses and generate negative cash flow from operations.
According to the prospectus, Barnesandnoble.com sold books to customers in 181 countries; international sales accounted for 10% of total revenues last year. The online retailer used B&N to source approximately 60% of its purchases in 1998, compared to 38.5% in 1997. The prospectus also noted that as of March 1, 1999, the company had 654 full- and part-time employees.
One employee who is no longer with the company is Jeff Killeen, who was named COO at the beginning of 1998; he left the company in late February. During 1998, Killeen earned $590,385 in salary and bonuses.
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