Data storage has been a healthy market the last few years, holding up even as server sales stalled earlier this year.
So perhaps it’s not surprising that Wall Street has suddenly warmed to storage companies again after a two-year drought.
CommVault on Friday became the second storage company in two days to go public, following Riverbed’s
stellar debut on Thursday, the first storage IPOs since Xyratex
in mid-2004.
CommVault priced 11.1 million shares at $14.50 each late Thursday, at the top of its anticipated offer range, and raised $161 million in the process. Nearly 5 million of the shares were sold by current shareholders. Shares opened for trading Friday morning 10% higher at $16 before pulling back.
The IPO gives CommVault a market cap of more than $600 million. The data management software specialist had long been considered one of the most promising storage companies for an IPO.
In the June quarter, CommVault earned $1.9 million on sales of $33.5 million. For the year ending March 31, 2006, CommVault earned $5.1 million on sales of $109.5 million.
The successful IPOs of Riverbed and CommVault could pave the way for other storage companies to go public. Isilon and Double-Take are two others that are considering the IPO route.
