Caught in a technology downdraft, Loudcloud Inc. barely made a peep in its stock market debut Friday.
Shares in the Sunnyvale-based Web services company closed at $6.16 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, up 16 cents from its sharply discounted initial public offering price. Loudcloud helps to build and maintain the Web sites of other companies, a niche that isn't expected to produce a profit for the company until 2004.
Loudcloud's offering represented the most closely watched IPO in months, largely because of its chairman and co-founder, Marc Andreessen.
The 1995 IPO of Andreessen's last company, Web browser maker Netscape Communications, helped launch the Internet stock craze. Netscape's rise provided the bulk of Andreessen's estimated $500 million fortune.
Market observers were curious to see if Andreessen, 29, could work his magic again at Loudcloud and shore up the badly slumping IPO market.
But Andreessen received a dramatically different reception this time around.
Loudcloud slashed its IPO price in half before eking out Friday's 3 percent gain. In contrast, Netscape raised its IPO price before the stock doubled in value on its first day of trading in August 1995.
The times are much different now. Netscape's IPO came in the midst of a bull market more willing to gamble on unproven companies dabbling in the Internet.
Loudcloud pushed through its IPO amid a squall of pessimism. Burned by huge losses over the past year, investors are especially leery of unprofitable Web-based businesses such as Loudcloud, which lost $107.6 million in the nine months ended Oct. 31.
Venture capitalists now are advising their technology start-ups to string together three consecutive profitable quarters before pursuing an IPO.<
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