Contact: Brenon Daly
Exactly a year ago, LogMeIn hit the public market with an offering that has done what IPOs are generally expected to do. The debut priced at the top of its range ($14-16), raised a goodly amount of money ($107m, from 6.7 million shares at $16 each) and has held up solidly in the aftermarket. In its year as a public company, LogMeIn stock is up some 80% from its offer price, and more than 40% from its first-day close – twice the return of the Nasdaq over the same period. It currently sports an outsized market valuation of some $660m.
As we were wishing the on-demand remote connectivity vendor a happy birthday, we couldn’t help but be struck by the fact that if LogMeIn were trying to go public just a year later, the offering would almost certainly look less attractive. We’ve noted that three of the recent tech IPOs (Motricity, Convio and TeleNav) have all priced below their expected ranges. (The discounting was fairly dramatic in the case of Motricity, which ended up raising just half the amount that it originally planned.)
Also, as we discussed in a special report on the IPO market, offering sizes have been coming down. LogMeIn was able to raise more than $100m, despite finishing the previous year at about $50m. (Granted, looking at a subscription-based company in terms of revenue – rather than bookings – isn’t the most accurate financial picture.) In comparison, Tripwire, which recently put in its prospectus, is half again as big ($74m in 2009 revenue) as LogMeIn. But the security management provider is looking to raise just $86m.