TheGlobe.com
 |
|
| Public (OTCQB: ) | |
| Industry | Social Networking, Media |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | New York, Fort Lauderdale |
|
Key people
|
Michael Egan Ed Cespedes |
| Products | Chat, Message boards, Computer Games Magazine, GloPhone |
|
Number of employees
|
120 at peak |
| Website | http://www.theglobe.com (Archive) |
theGlobe.com was an internet startup founded in 1994 by Cornell students Stephan Paternot and Todd Krizelman. A social networking service, theGlobe.com made headlines by going public on November 13, 1998 and posting the largest first day gain of any IPO in history up to that date. Part of the dot-com bubble, the company's stock price collapsed the next year, and the company retrenched for several years before ceasing operations in 2008.
While undergraduates at Cornell, Paternot and Krizelman encountered a primitive chatroom on the university's computer network and quickly became engrossed. Realizing the business potential, the two raised $15,000 over the 1994 Christmas break and purchased an Apple Internet Server. They founded a programming company, WebGenesis, and spent the next few months programming what would become their primary website. theGlobe.com went live April 1, 1995, and attracted over 44,000 visits within the first month. They readily recruited talent from the Cornell computer science department and had 17 employees by the site's first anniversary.
The pair used the popularity of the site and the increasing interest in the internet in 1997 to secure $20 million in financing through Dancing Bear Investments. As a result, Paternot and Krizelman received salaries in excess of $100,000 and revenues from preferred shares sales of $500,000 each. Both were 23 years old at the time.
In 1998, plans were made to take the company public. On Friday, November 13, 1998, theGlobe.com issued its IPO. The stock's target share price was initially set at $9, yet the first trade was at $87 and the price climbed as high as $97 before closing at $63.50. At the end of the trading day, the company had set a record for IPOs with a 606% increase over the initial share price. The company floated 3.1 million shares, raising $27.9 million and bringing its market capitalization to over $840 million. Based on their holdings, the young founders were worth close to $100 million each.
During the late 1990s, theGlobe.com expanded into gaming, purchasing Computer Games magazine, happypuppy.com (a computer gaming site), and Chips and Bits, an online store for computer and console gaming.
...
Wikipedia