There is no question that this is going to be a hot offering. I would rate the possibility of its being acquired very good. I do think, however, that they will take it public first, if for no other reason than to establish an irrational valuation. LOL. From Reuters:
biz.yahoo.com
Wednesday February 9, 1:13 pm Eastern Time
Internet infrastructure software firm Sequoia files IPO
WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Sequoia Software Corp., whose flagship product is portal software that sales representatives can use to keep better informed about their customers, has filed for an initial public offering.
The Columbia, Md.-based company, in a filing on Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, did not disclose such details as how many shares would be offered to the public, or their price. Those terms are expected in future filings.
Sequoia said it hoped to raise $60 million and use the net proceeds to develop products and services, expand sales force and sales office locations, fund potential acquisitions and other general corporate purposes, including operating losses.
It has applied to list the stock on Nasdaq under the symbol ``SQSW,' and the underwriters are Lehman Brothers, SG Cowen, Wit Soundview and Fidelity Capital Markets.
Sequoia develops Internet infrastructure software based on XML, or eXtensible Markup Language, to create interactive business portals, which it said are a critical part of becoming an electronic business.
``Interactive portals are a new generation of e-business solutions that are designed to tap into today's vast corporate and Internet information reservoirs in order to bring the right information to the right person at the right time,' Sequoia explained.
``This new type of XML-based information portal is capable of intelligently aggregating data and content from disparate sources, personalizing that information based upon a user's profile and enabling the user to interact with the original information source.'
Last summer the company acquired information management software firm Radian Systems Inc. for $5 million and, in the process, increased its sales force and customer base. It also got an XML-based technology for the extraction and transformation of database information. |
