December 12th, 2007
United Online shelves Classmates IPO
United Online said Wednesday that it is withdrawing its plans to take Classmates Media public. United Online said that launching a Classmates IPO “under current market conditions would not be in the best interests of its stockholders.”
Translation: Classmates would have gotten crushed as soon as it went public.
When Classmates initially filed its plans for an initial public offering the market looked better. Everyone was gaga for Facebook and a Classmates IPO looked like a nice opportunity for United Online to capture some of the buzz. But in a shaky market, Classmates is a tougher since its an also-ran in social networking.
United Online said in a statement that it will record a charge of $4.5 million to $5.5 million in the fourth quarter over the withdrawn IPO.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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