America Online Inc successfully concluded its offering of 4.9 million new common shares, raising $500m worth of equity for the ISP. The company said that in addition to using the proceeds for general operating purposes and to strengthen its balance sheet, it would provide it with the means to capitalize on the growing number of opportunities available as the industry continues to consolidate. A spokesperson said the company didn’t have any particular targets in mind right now, but merely wanted to be ready when the right one came along. AOL is still in the closing process of its $287m acquisition of Mirabilis Ltd and the spokesperson said all is going smoothly, despite widespread opinion that users of the company’s ICQ messaging service would protest the takeover by abandoning the service in droves. AOL still says it has no plans to make any fundamental changes to ICQ, bar technological improvements. AOL shares rose $1.875 to close at $105.125 Tuesday on volume of just under 8 million. The offering was jointly underwritten by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Lehman Brothers and is expected to close Thursday. It leaves AOL with about 225 million shares outstanding and a market capitalization of roughly $22.73bn. The company asserts that it will not dilute earnings per share, as it intends to place the proceeds in interest bearing investments that will offset the dilution that the extra shares would cause.
