Contact: Brenon Daly
Even though the public market has been fairly choppy lately, there seems to be no shortage of companies willing to step into the uncertain waters. We’ve seen a number of recent IPO filings, as companies get their final 2009 numbers in order and look ahead to a possible summer offering. The problem is that few of the would-be debutants actually look all that attractive. Included in the current lineup of IPO candidates are a deeply money-losing company that will stay in the red for at least the next two years (Tesla Motors) and a barely baked company that generated a grand total of $36,000 in revenue last year (Vringo).
Those IPO candidates, along with most of the rest of the recent vintage, hardly approach the caliber of offerings of SolarWinds and Fortinet, among other companies that made it public last year. But we understand that may be about to change as rumors indicate that one of the stronger private tech companies has set its underwriting lineup. QlikTech has picked bankers and will look to put in its IPO paperwork shortly, according to several sources. (Morgan Stanley, CitiGroup and JPMorgan will reportedly be running the books on the offering.)
We noted a possible future offering more than two years ago, coming off a year when the analytics provider increased revenue 80% to $80m. QlikTech followed that up with $120m in revenue for 2008, and we understand that the vendor actually boosted its top line again in 2009. If indeed QlikTech does file its S1 and eventually manages to go public, it will help to replenish a bit of the market that got picked over pretty thoroughly. Recall the shopping spree by tech giants back in 2007 that saw BI vendors Hyperion Solutions, Business Objects and Cognos all get erased from the public markets. The collective tab for that BI shopping spree: $15bn.