Shopping.com Ltd., which runs the Shopping.com product search engine as well as other partnered commerce portals, filed with U.S. regulators last week for an initial public offering worth an estimated $75 million.
According to the Rueters Wire Service, Shopping.com did not provide a price or amount of shares for the IPO, but the details are expected in future Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
The online shopping comparisons company, which runs Web sites including (http://www.shopping.com) and (http://www.epinions.com), provides free services for consumers.
Shopping.com said it receives referral fees from merchants and other listing providers who get customers from Shopping.com Web sites. It plans to use IPO proceeds for general corporate purposes including possibly funding acquisitions of businesses, products or technologies, according to the filing.
Shopping Search Engines have been making much news lately and have proven to be successful. Google recently featured its Froogle product search engine in search results and the categoricl search tabs on the new Google redesign. In addition, Yahoo has beefed up Yahoo Shopping with Overture based advertising. Shopping.com with its great branding and domain name may be a force to reckon with in the upcoming months before the 2004 holiday season.
