Mid-level ERP software supplier SSA Global Technologies
to raise up $200m in an IPO (initial public offering) of its
stock.
SSA Global turned a profit of $51.9m last year on revenue of
$297.4m. The company, which picked up the assets of ailing ERP
maker Baan last July, is among those Oracle cites as an
increasingly strong competitor in its antitrust argument with the
US Department of Justice.
SSA Global's IPO is underwritten by Goldman Sachs and Credit
Suisse First Boston. The company intended to use proceeds from its
IPO to repay debt and for general corporate purposes.
Other tech companies keeping SSA Global company in the IPO
pipeline include customer service application service provider
RightNow Technologies, analytics service provider WebSideStory,
Lindows and Google, which plans to raise as much as $2.7bn.
More than a dozen tech companies have filed for IPOs this
year.
One factor in that upswing is the growing maturity of companies
that weathered the post-dotcom shakeout, according to David Menlow,
president of IPO Financial Network.
"What's evident about the stocks that are coming to market now
is that they are companies that are growing, that had their peak
year of losses in 2000 or 2001, and have managed to reduce those
losses. That's a different profile than what was going around in
the boom cycle," Menlow said. "Investors are ready to put their
feet back in the water again."
Meanwhile, Salesforce.com one of the first software companies to
get in line for an offering, said it stopped plans to go public
last month after The New York Times published a story featuring
chairman and chief executive officer Marc Benioff.
The company said it would still go public after an unspecified
"cooling-off" period, although it acknowledged in an amendment to
its regulatory filing that it risks charges it violated securities
laws intended to prevent executives from hyping their companies
before an IPO.
"If our involvement [in the article] or such activities were
held by a court to be in violation of the Securities Act, we could
be required to repurchase the shares sold to purchasers in this
offering at the original purchase price for a period of one year
following the date of the violation," the company said. "We would
contest vigorously any claim that a violation of the Securities Act
occurred."
Salesforce.com, which filed in December for its IPO, is likely
to be the first to complete its offering after it has completed its
cooling-off period.
Stacy Cowley writes for IDG News Service