Santa Claus was good to eToys last Christmas, herding hordes of holiday shoppers to the online toy vendor and helping boost revenues 4,500 percent in the quarter ended 31 December.
The Santa Monica, California, company celebrated Wednesday by filing a US$115 million public stock offering that will be underwritten by Goldman Sachs.
EToys plans to use the proceeds to beef up its distribution and fulfillment infrastructure, increase marketing, and possibly buy companies that sell complimentary products.
How big was the holiday quarter? It accounted for 96 percent of the company's $23.9 million in revenues through the first nine months of its fiscal year. It wasn't good enough to bring the company into the black, though -- nine month losses topped $15.6 million.
The company warns in its prospectus that toy sales are highly seasonal, and that its growth rate will likely drop off until the next holiday season.
- - -
Mpath IPO: Mpath Interactive said Wednesday it filed with the Securities Exchange Commission to raise $46 million in an initial public offering.
Mpath, based in Mountain View, California, makes software that lets Web sites set up real-time interaction between a lot of people -- especially game players. The offering's lead underwriter is BancBoston Robertson Stephens.
Last year, the company saw a net loss of $12 million on revenue of $8 million.
In the "risk factors" section of its SEC filing, Mpath said it faces stiff competition for marketshare with the likes of Microsoft, SegaSoft, Sony, and Cendant.
The company also said that, as of 31 December, it had an accumulated deficit of $53 million, including a $14.5 million writeoff connected to its acquisition of Catapult Entertainment in 1996.
