| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : FEBRUARY 1, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| INSIDE WALL STREET
A Visual-Arts Web Spin-Off? After the dazzling success of recent Internet initial public offerings, a number of companies are thinking of spinning off their E-commerce operations and taking them public. One company rumored to be preparing for such a leap: International Microcomputer Software (IMSI) (IMSI), which on Jan. 14 signed an advertising agreement with Yahoo!, a leading Net portal and search engine company. IMSI, which makes software in 13 languages and sells it in 60 countries, owns several Web sites, including ArtToday.com, a subscription-based online provider of visual content, offering 750,000 photos, clip-art items, and fonts. The site has more than 50,000 subscribers, paying up to $29.95 a year for unlimited access to the art images. In just a few months, IMSI has acquired three more Internet companies, launched its MasterClips art gallery on the Internet, and ''developed the largest Web site for visual arts--that gets some 1.3 million visits a month,'' says Brian Swift, chairman and director of research of Security Research Associates in San Francisco. Management, he says, wants to capitalize on the red-hot Internet market and could spin out the ArtToday.com operations through an IPO, and keep or sell its other retail business. The company recently hired investment bank Hambrecht & Quist to suggest moves to maximize shareholder value. Swift figures IMSI's Internet operations are worth $100 million to $120 million, or about 15 a share. He believes the stock, now at 13, is worth 20 on fundamentals. But with a possible IPO, Swift says, ''who knows how high it will fly?'' BY GENE G. MARCIAL _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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