Eyeblaster, NameMedia Withdraw IPOs

Eyeblaster, a VC-backed provider of digital marketing services and technology, has withdrawn its planned $115 million IPO. The company raised $30 million in second-round funding last year from individuals Eli Barkat (managing director of BRM Capital), Jonathan Kolber and board member Guy Gamzu. Insight Venture Partners had led the company’s Series A round in 2003, but did not participate on the Series B. It retained a minority position. Sycamore Technology Ventures is also listed as a shareholder.

NameMedia Inc., a Waltham, Mass.-based online marketplace for domain names, has withdrawn its $100 million IPO. The company has raised $43.1 million in VC funding from Highland Capital Partners and Summit Partners, for pre-IPO positions of 50.5% and 22.7%, respectively.

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(Reuters) – Two more technology companies, NameMedia Inc and Eyeblaster Inc, applied to withdraw their respective initial public offerings on Wednesday, citing market conditions, according to their regulatory filings.

NameMedia, a Massachusetts-based online market for website domain names, originally filed for a $172.5 million IPO in November 2007, while New York-based Eyeblaster, a provider of online ad services, had applied for a $115 million IPO in March 2008.

Their withdrawals bring the number of companies to withdraw a planned IPO to 103 in 2008.

The market turbulence has led to the slowest year in IPOs since 2003, with more than three times as many deals withdrawn as those that have gone ahead.

Including these two withdrawals, 26 tech companies have canceled their IPO plans this year. Those deals would have yielded an estimated $2.5 billion in proceeds, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The tech industry is second in number of withdrawn IPOs only to the biotech industry, which has seen 30 withdrawals.

The most recent tech IPO was Rackspace Hosting Inc (RAX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) in August, and its shares are down 61 percent off their offer price.

The other tech IPO’s this year were RiskMetrics Group (RMG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and ArcSight Inc (ARST.O: Quote, Profile, Research), which are 16 percent and 23 percent below their respective offer prices.

NameMedia had intended to use the IPO’s proceeds for working capital and to pay off debt, while Eyeblaster planned to use its IPO for general corporate purposes.

The NameMedia IPO was to be have been underwritten by Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research), while Deutsche Bank Securities (DBKGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) had been set to lead Eyeblaster’s IPO. (Reporting by Phil Wahba; Editing by Derek Caney)