The encyclopedia · Finance & Accounting · Financial decision · 1999
W.R. Hambrecht auctioned IPOs so small investors could bid too.
OpenIPO replaced banker-chosen allocations with an online Dutch auction; Andover.net raised $72 million and proved the model could work.
W.R. Hambrecht + Co. · Andover.net
the move
Traditional IPOs were priced by underwriters and shares allocated to favored institutional clients, who often flipped them for a quick gain while the issuing company left money on the table. W.R. Hambrecht & Co. built OpenIPO to run the offering as an online Dutch auction open to any investor.
Andover.net's December 1999 offering was the system's third deal and its vindication: four million shares sold at $18 each, raising $72 million, and the shares more than tripled on their first day to close at $63.38. Wired reported that Hambrecht counted down from the highest bidders to set the price.
The first two OpenIPO deals had been dismissed as flops by Wall Street; the Los Angeles Times noted this was the first quality company through the auction. The mechanism's point was fairness and price discovery: all shares sell at the same clearing price rather than a banker's guess.
why it works
- An auction makes price discovery transparent instead of negotiated in private.
- Every winning bidder pays the same clearing price, so no one gets a secretly better deal.
- Individual investors get a real seat at the table, which was the pitch.
- The company sees demand directly instead of trusting underwriter allocation.
what transfers
When gatekeepers allocate a scarce good by discretion, an auction replaces their judgment with a transparent rule, and the rule is what small participants trust.
what came after
Hambrecht completed 19 auctioned IPOs in the US between 1999 and 2007, per the Degeorge-Derrien-Womack study of the deals. The mechanism never displaced book-building, but it proved an auction could price and sell a hot IPO fairly to the public and became the reference point for later attempts to democratize IPO access.
references
- Andover Strikes It Rich
- Andover's Debut Hits Pay Dirt in Hambrecht's 3rd 'OpenIPO'
- Auctioned IPOs: The U.S. Evidence (abstract)
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.