PC Mall unit eCost plans IPO that would raise $35 million.

ONLINE retailer PC Mall Inc. is latching onto Google's coattails, filing last week for an initial public offering of its eCost.com subsidiary.

According to the prospectus, eCost--a discount retailer that competes with the larger and better-known Overstock.com--plans to raise $35 million. In the Securities and Exchange Commission filing, eCost said it would use the cash to pay off debt owed to Torrance-based PC Mall, for general corporate purposes and for acquisitions.

The filing doesn't say how much of eCost that PC Mall will retain after the offering. However, after six months PC Mall--an online and direct-mail vendor of computer equipment--plans to distribute its remaining holdings in eCost to PC Mall shareholders. About 14 percent of PC Mall's current revenues are contributed by eCost.

Chris Krueger, an analyst with Miller Johnson Steichen Kinnard, said eCost is well positioned for the public marketplace, if the performance of Salt Lake City-based Overstock.com is any indication.

"Overstock is a stock whose shares have been moving upward like crazy," Krueger said. "It trades at a premium to its growth rates."

(Krueger said he doesn't own any PC Mall stock and his firm doesn't have an investment banking relationship with the company.)

Overstock.com went public in July 2002 at $12.26. On May 5, the stock closed at $37.50.

Krueger said eCost is profitable, while Overstock, which is twice its size, is not. eCost has generated profits for PC Mall in each of the past two years.

According to the prospectus, revenues rose 23.3 percent, to $109.8 million.

Krueger said these factors, combined with enthusiasm surrounding Google's expected IPO, bode well for eCost. "They're trying to get it done sooner than later," he said. "There's some excitement in the IPO markets right now."

In its prospectus, eCost.com said it would sell shares through William Blair & Co., ThinkEquity Partners and Merriman Curhan Ford & Co.