World Online_s worries did not end when its much-hyped IPO tanked last week. Now that the Dutch Internet service provider_s share price has plummeted to the point that the company has lost nearly half of its value, bankers and regulatory agencies are

The troubled company_s CEO, Nina Brink, sold off two-thirds of her shares in December, just prior to the mid-March public offering. She did so by transferring the shares to an investment house, which dumped 1.2 million shares on the market in the first day of trading. Speaking with the international press before the offering, Brink had promised that her shares would not be sold. The Amsterdam Exchanges, where the float took place, has said that it will look more closely at World Online_s IPO filings, but that it sees no reason to launch a full-blown inquiry. Despite that vote of relative confidence, negative publicity has snowballed. The Amsterdam media has discovered a reliable source of headlines: employees who had invested in the company and then, on paper at least, lost a fortune. The company had allowed each of its 1,500 employees to take out an interest-free loan, reportedly equivalent to their annual salary, to purchase shares in the ISP. Employees borrowed a total of nearly 22 million euros ($21 million) to buy some 500,000 shares.