Craig McCaw's Clearwire IPO "landed with a thud on Wall Street" after critics said his underwriters sold too many shares at too high a price, according to a report from the AP. After raising close to $600 million in an initial public offering Wednesday, shares of the company fell 38 cents or 1.5 percent on NASDAQ. The Street says the unusual decline in demand for a fresh IPO is the fault of the banks who increased the number of shares to be sold from 20 million to 24 million at top of the estimated range: $25 per share. In effect, this "watered down the demand." Typically on the first day of public trading, shares have gained an average of 5 percent for IPOs, according to IPO watchdog site, IPOhome.com.
For more on Clearwire:
- see this article from the AP