All signs seem to point to sooner, rather than later, for an initial public offering from push-media company PointCast, whose new CEO, David Dorman, took the virtual floor at a teleconference this morning and said that the company would make some waves within the next six to eight months.
"We have business performance today that is IPO-able," Dorman said, before going into a little song and dance of purported indecision about whether PointCast would quickly take to that route or spend more time and money increasing viewership before making a go of it. Dorman, whose background as a Baby Bell CEO seemed to speak right through his guise of new-media exec, was certainly decisive about the end result of either plan. "We're going to run this business for the benefit of the shareholders," he said.
Analysts won't comment on the company's prospects, saying either that they aren't privvy to PointCast's financials and therefore can only speculate, or "can't talk about it" - perhaps because their firms are among the underwriters of the uncertain IPO. But one mostly tight-lipped analyst offered the observation that private companies don't generally hold press conferences to present new executives "unless they want something out of it, like coverage to benefit an upcoming IPO."
PointCast apparently has some 1.2 million active viewers, which Dorman would like to see doubled in the next 18 months. He sounded confident about such prospects and more, saying that he had not only passed by the CEO-ship of Apple Computer, but quite a number of plum positions. Dorman said "I was interested in a sure growth opportunity ... something I could put my mark on," and make a bundle on, too. His compensation package is "heavily equity based," he added.
As to whether PointCast would sell itself to the highest bidder, as reports earlier this year suggested, Dorman would only say "I wouldn't rule out anything at this point, [but] we're not shopping the company around.
