If the recent stock performance of online retailers is any sign, it could be a while before Buy.com Inc. braves the public waters.
It’s certainly been a long time since the Aliso Viejo-based seller of DVDs, CDs, electronics and other gear said it planned to do an initial public offering.
Six months ago, Buy.com filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $86 million in an offering.
Since then, there’s been no word on the timing of the offering from Buy.com.
Spokeswoman Shaila Arora declined to comment on the offering.
“We’re not saying anything about that,” she said last week.
Founded by Scott Blum in 1997, Buy.com plans to use money from an offering to pay back $23 million to Blum’s ThinkTank Holdings LLC, parent of Buy.com and several other companies.
The rest would be used for working capital and, potentially, acquisitions, the company said in its registration statement.
RBC Capital Markets, Thomas Weisel Partners and Pacific Crest Securities are set to underwrite the offering. The company had $398,000 in cash at the time of the regulatory filing in January.
“It’s not uncommon for companies to file the registration statements and just wait,” said Joe Schim-melpfennig, managing director at Newport Beach’s Roth Capital Partners LLC.
What could be holding back Buy.com: Wall Street’s unfavorable take on other Internet retailers.
Shares of Amazon.com Inc., Buy.com’s biggest rival, are down 20% this year. EBay Inc. has seen its shares fall 33% this year. Overstock.com Inc. is off 40%.
Nasdaq is down just 3% for the year.
Internet companies that have fared better on Wall Street of late are search-related. Google Inc. is up 42% while Yahoo Inc. is off just 3% since January.
In one encouraging sign for online retailers, eBay earlier this month said it plans to buy Shopping.com, which has its roots in Orange County, for $620 million.
Another Orange County company that was set to go public this year pulled its offering two weeks ago.
Newport Beach contract chipmaker Jazz Semiconductor Inc., an offshoot of Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc., had planned to raise $150 million in a stock sale.
In an SEC filing, Jazz cited market conditions for nixing the offering (see story, page 1).
The offering was expected to be one of OC’s larger ones of late. Credit Suisse First Boston and Lehman Brothers were the lead underwriters.
Buy.com has had a bumpy ride during the past decade.
The company raised $182 million in a 2000 public offering, with shares jumping from $13 to $25 on the first day of trading. That gave Blum’s then-48% stake in the company a $1.6 billion value.
But Buy.com ended up on a downward spiral, beset by losses and mired in fierce competition with Amazon.com. The rivalry included a battle over free shipping in 2002 that at the time analysts said was an unrealistic throwback to the dot-com era.
After a little more than a year as a public company, Blum took Buy.com private in 2001 for a fraction of what it had been worth following the stock offering.
In recent years, Blum has improved Buy.com’s financial picture some.
Buy.com’s sales were $291 million in 2004, up 22% from a year earlier, though off sharply from $788 million in 2000. At the same time, the company’s operating loss has narrowed to $13 million from $26 million in 2003 and $120 million in 2000.
Blum operates several Aliso Viejo-based businesses under his Jackson, Wyo.-based holding company ThinkTank Holdings, including Buy.com, Sell.com, Commerce 5 and Thinkbig Media.
