DoveBid Inc., an online auctioneer of used plastics equipment and other products, is planning an initial public offering to raise as much as $80 million for expansion. The Foster City, Calif.-based company filed March 10 with the Securities and Exchange Commission to convert its preferred stock to 70.3 million shares of common stock.
The auction company, formerly known as Dove Bros. LLC, has sold assets for 62 years, but launched its first Web auction in November. The company conducts real-time bidding over its Web site and has an online marketplace to trade used capital assets, said Chief Financial Officer Cory Ravid.
"We need access to capital to grow the business," Ravid said in a March 16 telephone interview. "Our goal is to be a full-service provider of used capital assets from cradle to grave."
That work will include inspecting, shipping and rigging products for sale over its site, Ravid said.
DoveBid obtains equipment from plant closures, bankruptcies or asset sales. It has dealt in injection presses, granulators, pellet hoppers and mixing lines, Ravid said.
The company recently made seven acquisitions to bolster its auctioning services. They included the purchase this month of Chicago-based Phillip Pollack & Co. Inc., an auctioneer of plastic-related equipment. DoveBid paid $4.3 million for the company.
Including the acquisitions, DoveBid recorded $36.2 million in 1999 sales on losses of $5 million.
The company expects to launch the IPO within 60-90 days, or whenever the SEC approves the filing, Ravid said. The stock, at an undetermined price, will be traded on Nasdaq under the symbol DOVE.
DoveBid recently raised $119 million in private financing. Investors include Web search engine Yahoo!, which will feature the site on its new business-to-business Web page, Ravid said.