Each day, Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.
What Happened? On this day in 1999, drkoop.com held its initial public offering.
Where The Market Was: The Dow closed at 10,765.64. The S&P 500 traded at around 1,317.33.
What Else Was Going On In The World? In 1999, “SpongeBob SquarePants” debuted on the Nickelodeon cable network. Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France. Average U.S. monthly rent was $645.
Drkoop.com Flops: When drkoop.com went public at $9 per share in 1999, the company raised $88.5 million and was ranked as the top health care content site on the internet.
Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop founded the website during the height of the dot-com bubble, and a partnership with AOL soon had the stock trading at an all-time high of $45.75 per share.
In 1999, drkoop.com reported about 1.4 million unique visitors per month. When the bubble burst, drkoop.com was one of its many victims.
Investors were skeptical of health care websites that relied on advertising revenue. Drkoop.com reported tens of millions of losses per quarter throughout 2000. The company declared bankruptcy in December 2001, less than three years after its IPO.
