Published Monday, May 22, 2000

More deals than met the eye for U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray

There were more deals at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray during the first quarter than met the eye when the Star Tribune published the Quarterly Deal Report on April 24.

Piper originally reported 10 initial public offerings (IPOs), 12 additional equity deals, two private placements and four convertible debt offerings. A respectable number of deals. But that activity was only from the last month of the quarter.

A glitch in Piper's spreadsheet software used to list the deals caused the January, February and early March deals to go unreported, including 15 other IPOs, nine more additional equity offerings, three private placements and four more convertible debt offerings. That makes 25 IPOs, 21 additional equity deals and eight convertible debt offerings in the first quarter of 2000, which boosted U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray to a 254 percent increase in deals from the first quarter of 1999. In addition, Piper had three private placements of equity. In January, Eduprise.com raised $18.4 million; in March, AccessCash International Inc. raised $20 million, and Pozen Inc. raised $18 million.

U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray continued its strong showing in deals involving new tech issues and secondary offerings for tech companies. While Internet-related issues dominated the list, Piper saw an increase in activity for medical and bio-tech companies, too. The "missing deals" are listed at right.

http://www.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisSlug=POST22&date=22-May-2000&word=glitch&word=glitches

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 22, 2000