Barnesandnoble.com IPO to raise $422m

US bookstore chain Barnes & Noble's online offshoot, Barnesandnoble.com, has finally made its official IPO announcement. The company, a joint venture between B&N and Germany's Bertelsmann, was always intended to go public at some stage, but today it revealed details of its Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The offer of 25 million shares at $18 each will raise around $421.6 million after commission and expenses, the company said. That, it claims, is the largest e-commerce IPO to date. It will trade on Nasdaq under the 'BNBN' handle. The move is, of course, designed not only to generate funds immediately, but help the company appear as vigorous as its arch-rival, Amazon.com -- the number one Net book seller to barnesandnoble.com's number two. It also allows the company's major shareholders to cash in on the current trend for inflated Internet stocks. That's largely why barnesandnoble.com was spun off from B&N in the first place, to stop the fledgling Net business' shares from being dragged down by the stodgier stock of its parent. ®