Janet Richards fixes her eyes on those of her partner Gilbert Baker and says firmly, "All right. Let's do it". And with those words, InterCat, a firm founded by Janet and Gilbert that specializes in the design and maintenance of Internet catalogs for small consumer businesses, will be going public. InterCat employs 30 individuals, with the majority of them computer programmers. Many of the employees have followed the high-technology market very closely and have decided that since high-technology firms are more understood and valued in the United States than in other countries, InterCat should issue its stock only in the United States. Five million shares of InterCat stock will comprise this new issue.
The task the company has ahead of itself is certainly daunting. Janet and Gilbert know that many steps have to be completed in the process of making an initial public offering. They also know that they need to complete the process within 28 weeks because they need the new capital fairly soon to ensure that InterCat has the resources to capture valuable new business from its competitors and continue growing. They also value a speedy initial public offering because they believe that the window of opportunity for obtaining a good stock price is presently wide open-the public is wild about shopping on the Internet, and few companies offering Web page design services have gone public.