AdForce Files for $55 Million IPO

As expected, online ad management solutions provider AdForce Inc. filed for an initial public offering that could raise as much as $55 million.

“Clearly, the other companies similar to AdForce have done very well, including DoubleClick and 24/7,” Ken Fleming, a research analyst at Renaissance Capital Corp., told Bloomberg News. Greenwich, CT-based Renaissance manages the IPO Plus Aftermarket Fund, which invests in new stocks.

AdForce left the number and price of its common shares blank, to be filled in by later filings, and it estimated the offering’s maximum value at $55 million only calculate its SEC registration fee.

The company’s top customer is GeoCities, the largest provider of personalized Web pages, followed by 24/7 Media and Netscape. Revenue for 1998 came to about $4.3 million last year, according to the IPO filing. Net loss was $15 million.

AOL–AdForce’s top shareholder with 2.5 million shares, a 14 percent stake before the IPO–also holds a “royalty-free, perpetual license” to AdForce’s services, the filing said.

Hambrecht & Quist LLC will underwrite AdForce’s stock sale, with Lehman Brothers Inc., Volpe Brown Whelan & Co., and Charles Schwab & Co. AdForce plans to trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol ADFC.