Internet Company IPO Doubles? What Year Is This?

from the check-your-calendars... dept

It feels like we never get to use this icon any more, but that might be changing. Check your calendars, everyone, there's more evidence that we're experiencing a (very) mini-1999 again, as (get this!) an internet company has gone public and had its stock nearly double in its first day of trading. Of course, those of you who understand such things will immediately point out that this company just left an awful lot of money on the table, and that their bankers did a dreadful job. However, most people simply focus on the one day jump, and point out that it's the highest first-day gain since 2000. The company, by the way, is Chinese travel website Ctrip, but that doesn't matter so much as the symbolic stock jump that's likely to make a lot of other internet companies that have been holding back suddenly dust off those SEC filings. Of course, it's worth noting that, unlike so many in the dot com era, Ctrip is profitable.