Palm's IPO went ahead yesterday, netting the company a cool $874 million and leaving it at the end of the day valued at $21.3 billion. A success for Palm, certainly, but not one in the same league as recent Internet and Linux IPOs. Or is it? Yesterday's stock sale saw 23 million shares hit the market at $38 each, up just a little on Palm's asking price of $32, itself raised $16 on Monday from the first valuation. When Nasdaq opens today those shares will be available for the public to trade, at which point we'll finally be able to see whether the demand for Palm stock will push the price up to the levels of other hi-tech IPOs. Unlike other recently floated companies, Palm makes money: $23 million in profits on revenues of $435 million in the six months to 26 November 1999, according to Dow Jones. Nokia, Motorola and AOL also took small stakes in Palm bringing the company a further $225 million. ®