BladeLogic Looks to $80M IPO

Data center automation specialist BladeLogic has added more flesh to the bones of its IPO strategy, revealing plans to raise more than $80 million in an offering later this year.

The vendor, which promotes its software as a way for users to centrally manage and provision servers and storage devices, will offer 5,750,000 shares priced between $12 and $14 per share, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday. (See BladeLogic Announces Alliance, Onaro, BladeLogic Team, Right90 Selects BladeLogic, and Storage Left Out of CMDB Loop.)

Of these shares, just under 4 million are BladeLogic common stock, and a little over a million are from selling stockholders, according to an amendment to the vendor's S-1. Underwriters Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia Securities, Citigroup, and Cowen & Company also have the right to purchase an additional 750,000 shares of common stock.

BladeLogic expects its net proceeds from the IPO, which will take place sometime later this year, to be around $45.4 million, based on a midpoint selling price of $13. This money will be used to expand the vendor's sales and marketing, as well as its R&D efforts, according to the SEC documents.

M&A is also on the horizon, with some of the proceeds funneled towards "the potential funding of strategic acquisitions," although the document does not reveal which firms are likely targets.Recent storage vendors taking the IPO plunge have typically surpassed their initial share prices, with Data Domain trading strongly following its IPO last week. (See Data Domain Goes Public, Data Domain Prices IPO, Data Domain Prices $78M IPO, Data Domain Closes IPO, and Quantum Gains on Rival's IPO.) It was a similar story for clustering specialist Isilon and replication vendor Double-Take, although the former eventually came back to earth with a bump. (See Isilon Announces IPO, Double-Take, Isilon Go Public, and Double-Take Seeks IPO.)

Trading under the Nasdaq ticker symbol BLOG, BladeLogic will be up against big-name public companies, such as HP, IBM, CA, and BMC, server automation specialist Opsware, and smaller vendors Intuity and Managed Objects. (See HP Finalizes Mercury Buy, CA Supports ITIL, Opsware Outlines Storage Plan, Opsware Gains CreekPath, and Storage Shopping Spree.)

The filing reveals that the BladeLogic's revenue in the six months ended March 31 this year was $27.1 million, compared to $12.2 million for the same period last year. At the same time, BladeLogic's losses are narrowing, from $4.1 million in the six months up to the end of March 2006, to $200,000 in the same period this year.

BladeLogic also has around 200 customers in its client list, including ten of the Fortune Global 50 companies, although the SEC document does not name names.

The automation software vendor is not the only storage firm busting an IPO move at the moment. Yesterday, SAN vendor Compellent filed its own S-1, following in the footsteps of Netezza, Mellanox, Riverbed, Isilon, and Commvault. (See Compellent Preps for IPO , Compellent Plans IPO, Netezza Nudges IPO, Riverbed Comes Out at $9.75, and CommVault Swims in Public Pool.)There is now growing speculation about which vendors will be next down this path, with IPO rumors continuing to circulate around InfiniBand specialist Voltaire and 10-Gbit/s Ethernet switch specialist Force10. (See Voltaire Nabs Cash Amid Speculation and Force10 Round Hits $113M .)

James Rogers, Senior Editor Byte and Switch