The 2011 IPO of Qihoo comes straight from the playbook of the dot-com 1990s. Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU), which is a Chinese provider of antivirus software, originally set the price range of its deal at $10.50 to $12.50. Then Qihoo increased it to $13.50 to $14.50. With demand at 40 times the amount being raised, the final price of the QIHU stock IPO came to $14.50.
Well, QIHU investors thought that price still too low. So far in today’s trading, the shares of Qihoo 360 are trading at $29. With 175 million shares outstanding, the market value of the company is a whopping $5 billion overnight.
Why all the excitement? Well, Qihoo 360 is the #3 Internet company in China, with a user base of 339 million. That’s an 85.8% penetration rate. Read
A long-time follower of the IPO scene, back in 1999 Tom started one of the first sites in the space called WebIPO. It was a place where investors got research as well as access to deals for the dot-com boom. Tom also wrote the top-selling book, Investing in IPOs. In it, he covers all the aspects of analyzing an IPO, such as reading the prospectus, detecting the risk factors and understanding some of the arcane regulations. But don’t worry — if that process is too intimidating for you, thankfully Tom will do the legwork for you right here in the IPO Playbook blog.
