`WIRED' SCUTTLES STOCK OFFERING.Byline: David E. Kalish Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. In a novel twist to the debate over free speech, the Internet was abuzz Friday with speculation that ``Wired'' magazine may have chatted too loudly over the Internet to tout a stock it planned to sell. Wired abruptly canceled what would have been its first-ever stock sale, blaming ``adverse market conditions.'' On Thursday, before scrapping the deal, Wired had cut the proposed price of the stock by 25 percent. Behind the tepid tep·id adj. 1. Moderately warm; lukewarm. 2. Lacking in emotional warmth or enthusiasm; halfhearted: "the tepid conservatism of the fifties" Irving Howe. investor response was skepticism that the money-losing publishing company will ever turn a profit. But a memorandum from Wired's chief executive on the stock deal - which recently found its way onto the Internet - has ``digerati'' wondering about another possible factor: whether the publisher pulled the deal to avoid the appearance of wrongdoing wrong·do·er n. One who does wrong, especially morally or ethically. wrong  do .
Federal securities law bars companies from promoting their stocks in advance of a sale to the public. The rule-breaking issue flared after Wired's chief executive, Louis Rossetto Louis Rossetto (born 1949) is an American journalist. He is best known as the founder and former publisher of Wired magazine. Rossetto was born and grew up on Long Island, New York. He went to Columbia University as an undergraduate and later returned for an MBA. , wrote an internal memorandum that was sent electronically to employees of the San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden company in recent weeks. Rossetto spoke of his frustration with recent news stories on the company's flagging finances as ``at variance with the reality of the company we know.'' The e-mail was sent not only to current employees, but to infrequent contributors to the magazine not on the regular payroll. One, a writer based in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , decided to post the memo on a message board at The Well, a popular on-line Internet service based in San Francisco with 10,000 subscribers. Gerard Van der Leun, the Well subscriber who posted the message, said he had no hesitation about spreading information. ``This letter is basically news,'' he said from his office at Penthouse magazine, where he is a senior editor. ``This is a very high profile IPO (Initial Public Offering) The first time a company offers shares of stock to the public. While not a computer term per se, many founders, employees and insiders of computer companies have found this acronym more exciting than any tech term they ever heard. of a happening company - it's news time.'' John Stoppelman, a Washington lawyer who is a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission's task force on investigation rules, said the memo's Internet circulation was likely to get the notice of SEC regulators. |
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