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Chorum Pulls IPO

News Analysis Light Reading 3/15/2001

Chorum Technologies Inc. announced that its withdrawing its bid for an initial public offering (see Chorum Withdraws IPO).

The subsystems and components maker filed for its IPO on Halloween day last year and, in December, the company set its price terms at $16 to $18 on 8 million shares. The offering could have raised $136 million for Chorum. The firm's lead banker on the offering was Credit Suisse First Boston.

Chorum, of course, isn't alone here (see IPO Window Shuts Tighter). On Monday, Lucent-backed WaveSplitter Technologies Inc. withdrew its IPO bid, citing market conditions. The offering could have raised up to $110 million for the optical component maker. WaveSplitter’s decision comes one working day after OMM Inc. withdrew its filing. OMM’s planned offering could have raised $99 million (see Tough Seas for New IPOs, OMM, and Wavesplitter Files for $155 Million IPO).

Chorum recognized revenues of $6.1 million for the three months ending December 31, 2000, and all of that revenue came from shipments of its optical filters to Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE/Toronto: NT). In the prior quarter, Chorum recognized $3 million in revenues from the same business.

On Wednesday Chorum announced two new products that are designed to improve the performance of DWDM (dense wavelength-division multiplexing) systems (see Chorum Announces Two Products).

-- Phil Harvey, senior editor, Light Reading http://www.lightreading.com

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Dr. Dre 12/4/2012 | 8:42:50 PM

re: Chorum Pulls IPO >>Face it, the bubble has burst

I don't think anyone will dispute that. But there is still money to be made. The best companies will eventually IPO, while the 2nd tier firms will merge with others or get bought out by one of the already established players. Money (although much less than anticipated) will still be made.

>>My only remedy for the current account deficit >>is to ship more Baywatch abroad.

I am starting to wonder if I should have even responded to this post. Were you drunk when you wrote this?

>> Dow Chemical, I salute you!

Don't bother answering the question before. I think the answer is obvious.

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Dr. Dre 12/4/2012 | 8:42:51 PM

re: Chorum Pulls IPO >>Face it, the bubble has burst

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Titanic Optics 12/4/2012 | 8:42:54 PM

re: Chorum Pulls IPO Face it, the bubble has burst. On a macro-level, it is going to be difficult for ANY company to get out the first half of 2001. On a smaller level, I think that institutional investors are somewhat weary of optics firms--they are starting to figure out how to differentiate between a leading company and a "me-too" firm, while realizing that there are close to 1000 firms that have sizable exposure to optical-networking.

Again, on the larger, macro-level, the bubble has begun to burst (still has more air to leak out). I remember reading a survey of the world economy in the Economist magazine in Nov. 99--it was the first media mention I saw to overlay the US stock market of the 90s with Japan of the 80s and US of the 20s. At the end of the article there was a picture of the Titanic, half-sunk and back-end up out of the water, with the caption, "Did you see the iceberg, Captain Greenspan?"

Hubris is a product of human nature, not of any specific culture, and thus whether one is Japanese or American this is a fact of life. That said, there are important differences between the two economies: Japan's bubble included real-estate speculation and less transparency in corporate governance (some even called the whole system rigged); however, the US economy, opposite Japan, has a lot of consumer debt and runs a current account deficit (means US imports too much stuff) and this can put great pressure on the dollar if there should be a recession.

My only remedy for the current account deficit is to ship more Baywatch abroad. I'm in LA for OFC and was out at the beach today, feeling pretty bad that I wasted alot of my life watching that show. It is hard for me to look at the real lifeguard towers and not think about the show. Baywatch was a product that the US can build to compete on the world stage (it was the #1 show worldwide). Dow Chemical, I salute you!

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x1797 12/4/2012 | 8:43:26 PM

re: Chorum Pulls IPO Too many companies just don't have the stomach for it. What a shame. Call it smart or call it dumb, I just think it's a shame.

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