LV company going public

The company plans to raise $69 million in its IPO of common stock and use the net proceeds to repay about $7 million in debt, for advertising and brand development, working capital, general corporate purposes and potential strategic investments or acquisitions.

The offering is being made through U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray and CIBC World Markets. It has applied for the trade symbol RSVN on the Nasdaq exchange.

Travelscape.com evolved from Las Vegas Reservation System Inc., which was founded in 1990 by Chief Executive Tim Poster. The company initially began as a telephone reservation system. LVRS has grown more than 30 percent a year and now books more than 300,000 room nights a year at 40 Las Vegas resorts. It has a 24-hour call center staffed by about 100 employees.

When the company expanded into Internet bookings, Travelscape.com emerged as the dominant force.

It has developed strategic alliances with Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo! and offers users of the service access to plane reservations, show tickets and golf tee times as well as hotel reservations.

The company has several competitors in the market, including Reservations Plus, Lowestfare.com and The Trip.com.

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