Finance
Case Analysis of Netscape's
Initial Public Offering
Executive Summary
2. Background-3P 3.1. Position
The Internet Industry consists of companies that provide a wide variety of products and services primarily online through their Web sites. Operations include, but are not limited to, search engines, retailers, travel services, as well as dial-up and broadband access services. Netscape Communications is a US computer services company, best known for Netscape Navigator, its web browser. Netscape's web browser was once dominant in terms of usage share with a high market share. There are several reasons for Netscape to be successful at that time, the first one is that they come to the broad Internet market early and had the first-mover advantage being the pioneer of web browsers in the evolving Internet market. The second reason is less competition in the current market. While Netscape started their business, it had little competition in the market. The third reason: high level of innovation. The innovative products satisfy the customers’ needs and improve their firms’ brand recognition
However, Netscape’s position seems to be risky because they are standing in a very competitive position. Spyglass, Microsoft and other on-line computer service providers are the main competitors at that time. Under the fierce competition, Netscape lost most of its market share to Internet Explorer during the first browser war. The usage share of Netscape had fallen from over 90-percent in the mid-1990s to less than one-percent by the end of 2006. 3.2. Product
The company’s most popular product: Netscape Navigator was a client-based web browser software application that allowed users to navigate the Internet and the new World Wide Web using a graphical point-and-click interface with text and images, similar to the Windows or Mac operating systems for personal computers. Navigator combined many of the text-based Internet commands into an easy-to-use graphical
Initial Public Offering
Executive Summary
2. Background-3P 3.1. Position
The Internet Industry consists of companies that provide a wide variety of products and services primarily online through their Web sites. Operations include, but are not limited to, search engines, retailers, travel services, as well as dial-up and broadband access services. Netscape Communications is a US computer services company, best known for Netscape Navigator, its web browser. Netscape's web browser was once dominant in terms of usage share with a high market share. There are several reasons for Netscape to be successful at that time, the first one is that they come to the broad Internet market early and had the first-mover advantage being the pioneer of web browsers in the evolving Internet market. The second reason is less competition in the current market. While Netscape started their business, it had little competition in the market. The third reason: high level of innovation. The innovative products satisfy the customers’ needs and improve their firms’ brand recognition
However, Netscape’s position seems to be risky because they are standing in a very competitive position. Spyglass, Microsoft and other on-line computer service providers are the main competitors at that time. Under the fierce competition, Netscape lost most of its market share to Internet Explorer during the first browser war. The usage share of Netscape had fallen from over 90-percent in the mid-1990s to less than one-percent by the end of 2006. 3.2. Product
The company’s most popular product: Netscape Navigator was a client-based web browser software application that allowed users to navigate the Internet and the new World Wide Web using a graphical point-and-click interface with text and images, similar to the Windows or Mac operating systems for personal computers. Navigator combined many of the text-based Internet commands into an easy-to-use graphical