Slashdot goes public

By Jack September 21, 1999 3:56 PM

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Sometime later this year, Andover.net will offer 4 million shares of common stock (leaving 15 million shares outstanding) to the public at $12 to $15 per share in hopes of raising about $50 million.?Andover.net paid $1.5 million to acquire Slashdot.org and $367,000 to acquire another Linux/open-source site, Freshmeat.net.?Both will receive further cash and stock considerations if the founders, notably Malda and a couple of others, remain with Andover.net for two years.?Malda will receive an additional $3.5 million plus stock over the next two years should he remain with Andover.net.?That's a far cry from the out-of-his-house operation Malda was running before Slashdot was acquired.?Slashdot had revenues of $18,000 and a net loss of $10,000 in 1998, according to the prospectus.?Malda's salary is now $90,000.?But Andover.net clearly thinks Malda is worth the price.?E-commerce may become the revenue generator, but the content at Slashdot, mostly chosen and moderated by Malda and his partner Jeff "Hemos" Bates, is what Andover.net is counting on to bring visitors to the site in the first place.?When Andover.net acquired Slashdot, Malda said he wanted no part of the business aspect, and he is often quoted as saying he just wants to run a Web site.?"I have no problem trying to make money, but my concern is not to convert visitors into dollars," the 23-year old Internet millionaire and Andover.net board member told PC Week Online at the time of the acquisition.?"My job is to make visitors happy.?I have no intention of going down that path of the techie turned businessman.?That's not what I'm going to do."

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