Assertion Partly supported AI assessment confidence: 90% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

Spivack: EarthWeb's 1998 IPO was NASDAQ's sixth largest first-day gain at the time

Nova Spivack · The Inside Scoop On Building $1b+ Unicorn Data Company with Nova at Bottlenose.com, EP 248: Nova Spivack · Jun 2, 2016 · at 1:49

Nova Spivack, serial entrepreneur and founder of Bottlenose, reflects on founding EarthWeb and taking it public.

0:00 / 0:11exact quote · 11.1s

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“I started EarthWeb in 1994 as one of the first internet companies in the world. went public in 98. It was the sixth largest gaining NASDAQ IPO in history at the time.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

EarthWeb went public in 1998 as the sixth largest gaining NASDAQ IPO in history at the time.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

Nova Spivack correctly stated that EarthWeb (EWBX) went public in 1998 and achieved one of the largest first-day gains in NASDAQ history, but understated its contemporary rank. When EarthWeb completed its IPO on November 11, 1998, closing up 247.8% on its first day of trading, it ranked as the second-largest first-day percentage gain in NASDAQ/U.S. IPO history at the time (behind only Broadcast.com at 249%), shifting to third two days later when theglobe.com debuted (+606%). EarthWeb only fell to sixth and lower in all-time rankings following subsequent offerings in late 1998 and 1999.

EarthWeb completed its NASDAQ IPO on November 11, 1998, gaining 247.8% on its first day (priced at $14.00, closed at $48.69).
On its debut date in November 1998, EarthWeb was the #2 largest first-day IPO percentage gain in history, behind Broadcast.com (July 1998, 249%).
Two days later, on November 13, 1998, theglobe.com gained 606%, making EarthWeb the #3 largest at that time before later 1998-1999 IPOs pushed it further down the list.

Checked against

[1] cnet.com [2] latimes.com [3] wikipedia.org [4] epdf.pub [5] cbsnews.com [6] forbes.com [7] slideserve.com

EarthWeb IPO first day gain 1998 NASDAQ ranking EarthWeb IPO November 1998 largest first day gain "EarthWeb" "Secure Computing" "Broadcast.com" "first day" IPO gain

assessed as of 2026-09-02

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Mentioned

EarthWeb Nasdaq Nova Spivack

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