Wow, an actual honest-to-goodness, venture-backed software IPO.
We’re getting one Wednesday.
SolarWinds Inc. (SWI), an Austin-based provider of network management software, on Tuesday priced an IPO of 12,116,279 shares at $12.50 apiece. The company is selling 9 million shares in the offer, with selling holders - including various officers of the company and several venture investors - offering the rest. The selling holders will sell up to an additional 1,817,441 shares to cover over-allotments.
The banks on the deal include J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, with Jefferies & Co., Thomas Weisel and Ladenburg Thalmann as co-managers.
What kind of an appetite will there be for an IT software IPO at a time when corporate tech budgets remain extremely tight? Hard to tell. According to the company’s S-1 filing, SolarWinds had revenue in 2008 of $93.1 million, up from $61.7 million in 2007. On the other hand, March quarter revenue of $24.1 million was down from $24.9 million in the December quarter, which was down from $26.2 million in the September quarter. In short, the company is hardly immune from the downturn. But maybe flat is the new up.
