Social networking IPO this week

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How much is Wall Street really willing to bet on the social networking craze? We’ll find out this week as Classmates Media Corporation prices its IPO, expected to raise 120-144 million bucks. The company operates the Classmates.com website for folks to stay in touch with old school chums. It was a true pioneer of the field, dating back to 1995, before anyone started calling them “social networking” sites. But even with 50 million registered accounts, it is nowhere near the size of MySpace or Facebook. Pro forma 2006 revenues were 152.1 million and the company was just eight million short of that with another quarter to go this year. The IPO led by Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan seeks to place 12 million shares in an expected range of 10-12 bucks each.