Companies That Had Their IPO In 1998

What are some of the companies that had their IPO in 1998? As we approach the end of the year in 2022, it’s interesting to take a look backward. While looking at the past 20 years of market history, it’s amazing how many companies have gone public over the past two decades. America has always been a leader in entrepreneurship. New businesses are popping up every day thanks to new technologies, access to capital markets, and the internet. We wanted to review the list of companies that went public in 1998 and see what their status is today.

8 Companies That Had Their IPO In 1998

In 1998, the stock market was booming. The Nasdaq index was surging to new highs, and investors were eager for new ways to make money. It was the year of the IPO. With the help of Renaissance Capital, we looked at some of the biggest companies that went public in 1998. As well as how they’ve done since.

1. AMP Limited

A provider of banking services, including house loans and savings accounts. As well as investment and pension products in Australia and New Zealand. AMP also offers financial counseling. Australia’s Sydney is where it has its main office.

As a cooperative society and nonprofit life insurance agent, the Australian Mutual Provident Society was established in 1849. It was demutualized in 1998 to become AMP Limited, an Australian public corporation, and is now traded on the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges. AMP has one of the largest shareholder registrations in Australia, with the majority residing in these two countries. This was to ensure that everyone who owned a policy when the society demutualized received shares in the new business. For those looking to boost their social media presence, SocialWick offers services to increase Instagram followers and likes.

2. BlackBerry Limited

A cybersecurity-focused software business in Canada is called BlackBerry Limited. Research In Motion (RIM), the company’s previous name, created the BlackBerry line of interactive pagers, phones, and tablets. Under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer John S. Chen, it transformed into a provider of enterprise cybersecurity software and services.  

Numerous companies, automakers, and governmental organizations use its solutions to thwart hacking and malware assaults. The BlackBerry AtHoc crisis communication system (ECS) system, the QNX real-time operating system, the BlackBerry Application Framework, a Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) platform, and BlackBerry Cylance’s artificially intelligent cyber-security services are among them.

Prior to the company’s first public offering (IPO) on the Toronto Stock Exchange in January 1998 with the symbol RIM, it raised a total of C$30,000,000 in pre-IPO funding.

3. Republic Services

Non-hazardous solid waste collection, trash transfer, garbage disposal, processing. As well as alternative energy. All provided by Republic Services, a waste management firm based in the United States. After the Waste Management Corporation, it is the second-largest waste disposal service in the country. Republic Industries separated from Republic Services in an IPO in 1998, and after that, the company changed its brand name to AutoNation.

Republic Services went public at $12 per share in 1998 just two days after the Nasdaq Composite peaked at 5132.52 and two months before it hit its all-time high of 5080.53 in 1998. In other words, it was right at the height of the internet bubble.

4. eBay Inc.

eBay Inc. is a multinational American e-commerce enterprise with headquarters in San Jose, California, that enables both business-to-business and consumer-to-consumer purchases through its website. Pierre Omidyar launched eBay in 1995, and it quickly rose to prominence as one of the dot-com bubble’s major success stories. As of 2019, eBay is a multibillion-dollar firm that operates in around 32 nations.

eBay went public on September 21, 1998. Omidyar mentions eBay’s reliance on the sustained health of the Beanie Baby industry in the risk factors section of the annual report submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 1998. Omidyar and Skoll both instantly became millionaires after eBay came out publicly since the price of shares rose to $53.50 on the first trading day, far above eBay’s target price of $18 per share.

5. MIPS Technologies

The MIPS architecture and several RISC CPU chips by MIPS Technologies, Inc., originally called MIPS Computer Systems, Inc., an American fabless semiconductor design business. For virtual environment, connectivity, integrated, the Internet of Things, and operating systems, MIPS offers CPU architectures and cores.

In order to monetize the work at Stanford University on the MIPS architecture, a groundbreaking RISC design, MIPS came into being in 1984. The business then attracted a lot of attention in the late 1980s. All thanks to designing successes with companies such as Silicon Graphics (SGI) and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Early in the 1990s, there were already a lot of new RISC designs on the market, making room for more design successes scarce. MIPS launched its initial public offering (IPO) on June 30, 1998, after raising around $16.3 million at a $14 per share listing price.

6. Cognizant

An American multinational provider of consulting and IT services is Cognizant. Its main office is in Teaneck, New Jersey, in the US. Cognizant is a CTSH and is a member of the NASDAQ-100. It was established in 1994 as a division of Dun & Bradstreet’s internal technology. So it began providing services to outside clients in 1996.

IMS Health conducted an initial public offering of the Cognizant shares in June 1998, after partially spinning off the business. The $34 million raised by the company fell short of the IMS Health underwriters’ expectations.

In the 2000s, Cognizant experienced a period of rapid expansion. In 2011, it was in the list of the Fortune 500 companies; as of 2022, it is number 185.

7. Yahoo! GeoCities

Yahoo! GeoCities was a website hosting company that let users publish sites for free. In addition, it let them search for sites by theme or purpose. It also helped them build their own websites for free. David Bohnett and John Rezner founded GeoCities in November 1994.

Originally called Beverly Hills Internet, it later became GeoCities. It was reportedly the third-most frequented website on the World Wide Web when Yahoo! bought it on January 28, 1999. Before it was shut down, GeoCities had at least 38 million pages available, the majority of which were user-created.

Up until March 31, 2019, GeoCities Japan offered its service. The business was incorporated in August 1998 and registered on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol GCTY. The value of the initial public offering was $17. And it rose quickly after that to a maximum of more than $100.

8. Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York

The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York was the country’s first and oldest continuously operating insurer. It came into being in 1842 and had its headquarters at 1740 Broadway. Until 2004 when it became a completely owned subsidiary of AXA Financial, Inc.

As part of its transition into a publicly traded firm, it became Mutual of New York Insurance Company in 1998. The corporation intended to offer 11.3 million additional shares in addition to issuing 34 million shares to its 900,000 policyholders. The Mony Life Insurance Company, a division of Mony Group Inc., purchased the Cincinnati-based U.S. Financial Life Insurance Company for $48 million following its initial public offering (IPO). During which it divided up shares of the company to insurers. It also sold shares to the general public at a price of $23.50 per share.

Final Words

As a fun exercise to wrap up our most recent listicle, we decided to look back at some of the companies that had their IPO during the year 1998. It’s difficult to imagine what it was like for them in the beginning. But it’s also interesting to see how far they’ve come since then.