In today’s tough economic climate, high-tech firms have been taking flight when it comes to their planned IPOs—delaying them or canceling them outright (think Archemix, BG Medicine, and so on). But Pogo Jet, a Chicopee, MA-based jet charter service—aimed, no doubt, at least partly at the high-tech business set—is letting its IPO ambitions soar. The company, which plans to serve NorthEast and select Canadian markets when it begins commercial operations in early 2009, has set its IPO terms—filing plans today with the SEC to offer 7 million common shares at between $12.50 and $16.50 per share.
The company is led by Robert Crandall, former CEO of American Airlines. It plans to launch operations with a fleet of VLJs, or very light jets, designed to make charter jet service nearly as affordable as a business class seat on commercial airlines. (The company makes its intended demographic pretty clear on its website when it says two passengers on one of its Eclipse 500 jets “could easily bring two golf bags, two rolling bags and two pieces of soft-sided luggage.”) We recently took a more in-depth look at the promise of VLJs in this article about a Pogo Jet competitor, Concord, MA-based Linear Air, which also flies the Eclipse 500.
Pogo Jet’s biggest shareholders are Tiger Partners of New York and its chairman, Julian Robertson: both hold 30.82 percent pre-IPO stakes, according to the company’s SEC filing. The airline intends to trade on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol POGO.
Author: Robert Buderi
Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative.
Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.
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