Public Offering

Human Genome Sciences Inc. has begun an 8 million-share public offering of its common stock. The company said it will use the sale proceeds to pay for such things as expansion of testing its experimental drugs in people and operating its manufacturing plant and making acquisitions. The Rockville developer of gene-based drugs filed last month with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell up to $1 billion worth of securities in offerings that would be made from time to time as the company saw fit. The offering of 8 million shares the company announced late Thursday stems from that "shelf" registration.

Orion Power Holdings Inc., a Baltimore company that buys and operates power plants nationwide, plans to raise as much as $500 million in an initial public offering. Underwriters for Orion plan to sell 25 million shares to the public at $17 to $20 a share, according to an amended company prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The date of the offering has not been announced. The company plans to use the proceeds for future acquisitions and for the purchase, announced earlier this week, of Columbia Electric Corp.

NEW YORK -- AT&T Corp., testing a slumping market for telecommunications shares, sold $10.62 billion of stock in its wireless unit, as investors bet on surging cell phone use in the biggest U.S. initial public offering. The New York-based company sold 360 million "tracking" shares at $29.50 each, the midpoint of the expected range of $26 to $32 set by Goldman, Sachs & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., and Salomon Smith Barney Inc. The underwriters earned $318 million based on a 3 percent fee. The sale of the 16 percent stake gave AT&T Wireless Group a market value of $68.15 billion.

The past two days have been very good to shareholders of Aether Systems Inc. The Owings Mills companys shares rocketed $45.375 yesterday to close at $258.375. Those pyrotechnics followed a gain of $39.25 per share Monday. This 49 percent two-day rise has been caused in no small part by the same factor that has caused Aethers stock value to rise 16-fold since its Oct. 21 initial public offering -- investors fascination with technologies that allow people to tap into todays torrent of information anywhere, anytime.

TENS of millions of Americans are becoming accidental shareholders. They own insurance policies or annuities from mutual insurance companies. Many of these companies are going public and offering customers some stock. John Hancock went public at the end of January, making shareholders out of an estimated 1 million of its policyholders. Sun Life of Canada and Metropolitan Life will follow suit in early spring, scattering shares on nearly 9 million more. The giant Prudential is heading toward a public offering, too. Policyholders aren't forced into owning shares.

"BE CAREFUL about borrowing from your 401(k) plan," says Ellin & Tucker newsletter. "If you can't repay the loan, it will be treated as a distribution and subject to income tax. Also, you'll pay a 10 percent penalty if you're under age 59 1/2." "Investing in an IPO (initial public offering) is risky because the company has much less to offer in the way of history -- a `must' for evaluating a company." (Better Investing) "It's too soon to tell how many IPOs will have staying power, but of 170 companies that went public in 1990, more than 100 are trading below their original offer price."

AmericasDoctor.com put its plans for a stock offering on hold yesterday after announcing that it has merged with an Illinois-based pharmaceutical research patient recruitment company. The Owings Mills-based company also announced a $16 million investment from three venture capital groups, and said it expects to raise up to another $15 million. The capital was provided by Galen Associates Inc., Tullis-Dickerson & Co. and Delphi Ventures, the company said. Because of the merger with privately held Affiliated Research Centers Inc., AmericasDoctor.

Eric Montz is kicking himself right about now.The 27-year-old United Parcel Service driver from Catonsville opted to focus his attention -- and money -- on his 401(k) retirement fund rather than buying company stock."It seems like every customer I have is saying, `Oh, here comes the millionaire,' or `Do you have UPS stock?' " said Montz as he made deliveries in downtown Baltimore days after the company's initial public offering became Wall Street's hottest stock."I wish I did," he said. "So many people are talking about it that it's annoying."

Aether Systems Inc. is angling for what analysts predict will be one of the big growth sectors in the telecommunications markets during the next three years: Transmitting a wide range of data, from real-time stock and mutual fund quotes to airline schedules and e-mail on palm-size computers and other hand-held devices such as "smart phones."The 3-year-old Owings Mills company, which filed to go public this week, hopes to raise $75 million in its initial public offering.Aether develops sophisticated communications systems and data compression software to allow financial market and other data to be transmitted and received on mobile devices.

AmericasDoctor.com Inc., an Owings Mills company that allows computer users to communicate with physicians online, has announced plans to go public.In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said proceeds from the offering will be used in part "to fund operating losses."The company, incorporated in August 1997, had an accumulated deficit of $8.1 million as of March 31.The filing said AmericasDoctor.com may use some of the money from the offering "for strategic alliances and acquisitions."