06/10/96 NOW YOU CAN HOT-WIRE YOUR PORTFOLIO

NOW YOU CAN HOT-WIRE YOUR PORTFOLIO

WIRED VENTURES, the San Francisco publisher of Wired magazine and the online HotWired, is going public, plugging itself as a New Age media company, not a traditional publisher. Key to that are its links to the Net, Wall Street's favorite buzzword.
Wired Ventures' initial public offering is expected to fetch around $10 to $12 a share, say people familiar with the deal. By selling 12.5% to 15% of itself, Wired aims to raise up to $60 million to help launch such ventures as Hotbot, a product that searches Internet sites, and HardWired, a book-publishing unit devoted to technology.
While not profitable yet, Wired wins kudos for its business plans. ``They are providing original content on the Internet by leveraging what they've done in the magazine world,'' says Hambrecht & Quist analyst Daniel Rimer.
Wired, which premiered in 1993, has some 325,000 subscribers and is a favorite among advertisers to the youth market. HotWired has 375,000 active users. A company spokeswoman declined to comment on the stock offering.
EDITED BY LARRY LIGHT, WITH LISA SANDERS By Linda Himelstein