Stock Watch: FirePond Ready To Make a Splash

The initial public offering of e-commerce software and services company FirePond is expected to get off to a strong start today. In a sign of heavy demand, FirePond priced its offering at $22 a share, above the estimated range of $17 to $19. The original proposed range was $11 to $13 before being raised to $13 to $15 -- before being raised again.

The pre-IPO interest in FirePond is not hard to explain. E-commerce infrastructure companies are among the highest fliers on Wall Street right now, and FirePond, which is competing with heavyweights like Broadvision (Nasdaq: BVSN) and Kana Communications, looks like a solid one. FirePond, which offers both e-commerce and customer relationship management software, has clients in North America, Europe and Asia, and its notable customers include IBM (NYSE: IBM), General Motors and Hitachi.