Marchex IPO

I’m watching with interest the planned IPO of Marchex, Inc., a Seattle-based company started by the Russ Horowitz gang– the founders of Go2Net. These guys are excellent business aggregators. They make acquisitions and weave them into a large, scalable business. Marchex is seeking $28 million (revised downward from their November S-1). Last year’s revenues were about $22 million. Most of it came from Ah-ha.com, a company that MyFamily.com once acquired and owned briefly. I served on its board of directors for some time. It’s a great company led by Paul Brockband, a charismatic leader. Marchex will likely acquire several search engine-related businesses, grow revenues dramatically, and get profitable soon. Go2Net specialized in buying online businesses that were scalable and required very few human resources, like meta-search engines and message board services. If this IPO succeeds, the company’s market cap will be over $100 million. Not bad for a 1-year-old company whose first two acquisitions will probably end up costing less than $30-40 million (depending on earn-out levels)