from the searching-for-investors dept
Hoping to capitalize on investor love for Google, search engine Accoona
recently filed with the SEC to go public. However, John Battelle did some digging through the company's S-1 filing and finds that
this one looks pretty fishy. The company has gotten no traction in its core search business, so in order to goose revenues, the company has bought out a number of money-losing e-commerce firms that have nothing to do with its main business. Other red flags stick out as well, such as the company's assertion that it's got interesting things going on in China, an attempt to associate itself with another hot area. Finally, the company will go public through a
Google-like Dutch auction, in a blatant move to build up more hype. Obviously, the IPO window has
widened in the past year, as more tech companies have been able to go public. But investors seemed to have kept their wits about them, and it seems highly unlikely that an also-ran search firm that few people have ever heard of will capture the public's imagination.
Filed Under: search
Companies: accoona, google
