They left the adult Internet entirely four years ago and haven't shown a profit since. But former adult Internet traffic tracker WebSideStory offered no official comment on reports they've resurrected an initial public offering and may bring it to market as early as September 27.
That's their story and they're sticking to it, according to press spokesman Erik Bratt when reached for comment by AVNOnline.com. "The [Securities and Exchange Commission] forbids any comments in a quiet stock period," Bratt said just as quietly, referring all queries to the SEC.
Copies of any WebSideStory filings this month were unavailable at the SEC Web site on September 27.
WebSideStory first pursued an IPO in early 2000 – right when the original dot-com bubble was about to burst, keeping that deal from going further. They next went through a series of underwriters while transitioning themselves away from their adult Internet ties and, according to one published report, could not get enough interest in an IPO as late as a month ago.
What is known is that WebSideStory now is a far different company than the one that formerly drew an overwhelming majority of its advertising revenues from adult entertainment. Nearly all its 1997 ad revenue came from the adult Internet, with 90 percent in 1998 and 74 percent in 1999, before the company began moving out of both banner ad sales and the adult Internet entirely in early 2000.
Their aim was to transform into an Internet research firm. Toward the end of April 2000, AVNOnline.com reported WebSideStory moving toward an initial public offering and dropping its banner ad sales to adult Websites in a bid to make the IPO more attractive. At the time, WebSideStory hoped to raise $58 million from the IPO and to remove itself from advertising sales.
"In late 1999," a company IPO filing with the SEC said at the time, "we adopted policies designed to eliminate all revenue from adult advertising on our Web sites and we anticipate the elimination of such revenue from sales of advertising for adult content sites in the near future."
Various analysts at the time said the move made sense because top investment banks "tend to shy away from working with or representing those in or allied with the Adult entertainment business," as WorldFinanceNet's then research director, Irv DeGraw, put it at the time.
The only problem was that after they moved out of the Adult Internet, WebSideStory moved out of profitability for a long period of time. In the first six months of 2004 the company showed a $542,000 net loss on $10.3 million in revenue, though the losses have been getting smaller since 2001.
