Shopping.com soars on float debut

THE high-flying, first-day flotation of Shopping.com on the Nasdaq is reminiscent for many of the heady days of the dotcom boom in the late 1990s.

At the official close of trade, Shopping.com shares soared $10.80, or 60%, to $28.80 (£15.65), from its initial public offering price of $18. The share price climbed a little more in after-hours trading.

In Britain, Shopping.com, which compares the prices of consumer goods at various retailers, operates as Dealtime and as www.uk.shopping.com.

Despite the fact that its revenues for this year are budgeted to be a relatively paltry $115m - up 70% from last year - investors could not stop themselves driving the share price higher. Unlike dot com floats in the 1990s, Shopping.com has actually turned a profit.

It made $6.9m last year and has developed into one of the world's most popular e-commerce sites with more than 20 million visitors a month.

Offloading 6.87m shares, early investors raised a more-than-expected $123.7m. Interest in the float drove the price up from $14 to $18 a share.