Iggys House withdraws IPO

Iggys House, a company that offers discount real estate services and also has mortgage operations, has withdrawn its request for initial public offering, according to documents filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company had plans to sell 3 million shares of common stock at a price of about $5 to $6 a share in its IPO, according to previous filings. (See Inman News story.)

Iggys House CEO Joseph Fox said today that the poor market conditions caused the company to rethink the timing of the IPO.

"We decided to push it off until later in the year when we think market conditions will be more opportunistic for us in terms of going public at that time," Fox said.

Iggys House was cited as one of five companies that in the last two days have withdrawn their initial public offerings, according to a write-up in the New York Times' DealBook.

In the last two days, U.S. stock markets have been on a roller-coaster ride, with the Dow seeing triple-digit swings down and up. Markets are roiling from talks of a recession, and multibillion-dollar losses reported at major financial institutions.

Iggys House had filed its initial IPO report, known as a preliminary prospectus, in August, and was seeking to list its stock on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol "IGGY."

Iggys House offers buyers about 75 percent of the commission it receives from the home seller or listing broker through its BuySide Realty subsidiary and free entry into a multiple listing service for home sellers through its Iggys House brand.

The company recently launched its BuySide Realty services in Texas, Fox said today.

The company was founded by brothers Joseph and Avi Fox, who in 1996 created online stock brokerage company Web Street Securities and later took that company public and sold it to E-trade in 2001.

In an amended report for the IPO, filed with the SEC on Oct. 9, the company estimated that its net proceeds from the IPO would be about $14.2 million, based on an IPO price of $5.50 per share. The company at the time expected to spend about $3 million to $3.5 million in the following 12 months "to further develop our brand through new advertising and marketing programs," and to spend about $2 million to $2.5 million for technology development.

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