Welcome back to Baby Breakerdom! This week's quest to find budding Rule Breakers reveals another biotech upstart pulling away from the stock market and a Baby Breaker that wants you to shop till you drop.
We start with Intarcia Therapeutics, which a week ago cited unfavorable market conditions in pulling its planned IPO, which could have raised more than $86 million. That's just spooky. Earlier in the year, EpiCept did the same thing and then three weeks ago spent $136 million worth of stock to buy Maxim Pharmaceuticals
That Intarcia blinked may be bad news for investors hoping to cash in soon on Intarcia's breast cancer treatment, but it could prove smart in the long run. I mean, really, with competitors like Genentech
Moving on to the malls of cyberspace, comparison shopper Shop.com received $25 million in new venture funding from a group led by Oak Investment Partners. The hope, it appears, is to capture some of the love that's been bestowed on its rivals in recent months. For example, in June, eBay
Shop.com has to like its chances for a very healthy liquidating event, given that history. But it isn't sitting idle. VentureWire reports that the additional cash will fund marketing and customer service initiatives aimed at boosting traffic. Other priorities probably include the company's shopping platform, which operates in multiple languages and currencies and combines data from different merchants into a single, customizable Web page. Hmmmm. ... That's exactly the kind of Rule Breaking innovation my wife would really appreciate. You won't tell her, will you?
Finally, in Baby Breaker public offerings, Caribou Coffee
That's it for this week. See you back here next Friday, when we continue the quest for the next ultimate growth stock.
For more Rule Breaking Foolishness:
- Who are the giant killers and what can they do for your portfolio?
- You can find out which are the four stocks to buy in 2006.
- Sometimes insiders buy for all the right reasons. Who was at it this week?
Netflix. Marvel. AOL. Starbucks. Find out how David Gardner landed these and other multibaggers by taking a risk-free trial to Motley Fool Rule Breakers today. Your portfolio will thank you.
eBay is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation.
Fool contributor Tim Beyers has been to Starbucks so many times this week, he's actually beginning to miss his basement office. Tim didn't own stock in any of the companies mentioned in this story at the time of publication. You can find out what is in his portfolio by checking Tim's Fool profile, which is here. The Motley Fool has an ironclad disclosure policy.