Phone.com Inc saw shares from its Friday IPO rocket to close up 150.78% to $40.125 after the first day trading. Late Thursday, Phone.Com’s lead underwriter, Credit Suisse First Boston, had said there had been strong demand for the initial offering and pushed up the price to $16 a share from a range of $10 to $12. The stock opened well above that at $33.50.
Phone.Com, which changed its name from Unwired Planet Inc in April, offered 4 million shares which now trade on the Nasdaq under the PHCM ticker symbol. The IPO was the first to more than double on its first day of trading since Etoys launched in mid- May. Phone.com sells a software suite that enables two-way interactive messaging and internet content access from mobile handsets. The server suite, UP.Link Server Suite, provides the operators with subscriber management services, such as billing history information, as well as the capability to offer email capabilities to subscribers through the companies UP.Browser microsobrowser installed on the mobile handset. At the end of May, Phone.com had licensed UP.Link Server to 24 wireless network operators and its UP.Browser to 23 wireless phone manufacturers.
Phone.Com was also joined by a number of wireless industry heavyweights in the wireless application protocol (WAP) forum which aims ensure standard net access for mobile phones based on the company’s technology. The three largest wireless phone vendors in the world Nokia Oy, LM Ericsson Telefon AB and Motorola Corp all co-founded the WAP forum with Phone.com late last year. Since then it has faced competition for the attention of the major handset players from Microsoft Corp which teamed with US wireless handset vendor Qualcomm Inc to form a joint venture, Wireless Knowledge, to develop rival technology.
For the nine months ended March 31, Phone.com says it lost $14m on sales of $6.m but says that since it was founded in late 1994, it has raised about $72m in funding.
