WebSideStory files for $57.5 million IPO

Web site analytics company WebSideStory Inc. added its name Thursday to the growing list of tech companies planning to go public, filing registration papers to raise up to $57.5 million through an IPO (initial public offering).

The San Diego-based company sells services for tracking activity on corporate Web sites, recording traffic as well as finer details about responses to online marketing campaigns and the way visitors interact with the sites. Its 500 customers include The Walt Disney Co., Best Buy Co. Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Federal Express Corp.

In an echo of the dot-com heyday, WebSideStory is hoping to IPO before turning an annual profit. Formed in September 1996, the company bartered its services for online advertising space for its first few years in business. It began charging for its services in mid-1999, and finally stopped trading its services for advertising in December. Last year it had a net loss of $1.9 million on revenue of $16.4 million. The company squeaked into the black last quarter, turning a profit of $141,000 on revenue of $5 million.

Like RightNow Technologies Inc., a customer service ASP (application service provider) that filed its IPO papers earlier this month, WebSideStory is making its second run at going public. It filed in April 2000 for a $57.5 million IPO but withdrew its registration six months later, citing unfavorable market conditions.

WebSideStory had $7.1 million in cash and equivalents on hand as of March 31. The company plans to use the IPO proceeds to pay off holders of preferred stock and for working capital needs, along with technology investment. Its lead underwriters are Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. Inc. and RBC Capital Markets (a unit of Royal Bank of Canada).