Wit Capital Group Inc, the internet-based investment banking firm, says it will launch its own IPO next quarter after being part of some major high-tech IPOs, including EarthWeb Inc and Xoom Inc. The New York-based company pioneered the concept of net-based IPOs in an attempt to circumvent the insider-based nature of IPOs that are traditionally only available to the large client of investment houses. Presumably Wit’s own IPO will be a more open affair, but there’s no word about that or much else at present. The company won’t say how much it intends to raise, how many shares it intends to sell or at what price. There’s no lead manager named either, but perhaps Wit could do that itself, after all, being a lead manager is presumably one of the reasons it is going public in the first place.
