Carbonite was the only one of the 10 U.S. IPOs that went forward this week but it appears to be a wise move. Just look at the numbers. Carbonite stock ended Thursday up 24 percent – despite this week’s roller coaster ride on the U.S. stock market.
A cloud storage provider, Carbonite stock closed at $12.35 a share on the Nasdaq, higher than its initial-public-offering price of $10, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Its IPO worked out to a total $62.5 million, CRN said. Still, it had hoped to raise $106 million, CRN added. Money raised from the IPO will be used to expanding the company and for acquisitions. In recent days, Carbonite reduced its proposed IPO price by over 25 percent, according to Fortune.
“Given the roller coaster ride stocks have been experiencing since late July, the fact that Carbonite could pull off an IPO was itself a victory,” CRN said.
“It also represents a victory of sorts compared to its competition, which includes a wide range of relative startups as well as some long-established vendors who have moved into the market,” said David Friend, Carbonite CEO who founded the company six years ago.
Friend said Carbonite never considered postponing the IPO. Consumers, small and medium-size businesses use Carbonite to back up computer files, which are stored on the firm’s servers.
Users can view their documents, photos or videos via a web browser or through “Carbonite's smartphone and tablet-computer apps from iPhones and other devices,” The Journal reported.
Currently, Carbonite protects about 1.1 million customers worldwide, Friend said.
According to a report from the Boston Herald appearing on TechZone360, Carbonite had about 1 million customers as of April 30. Sales were about $54.1 million during 2010.
Carbonite’s subscribers reside in over 100 countries, according to a company press statement. Carbonite has backed up more than 100 billion files, restored more than 7 billion files and backs up over 200 million files daily.
Carbonite charges consumers $59 for a year’s worth of unlimited online backup service.
Carbonite’s competitors were identified in media reports as: Prosoftnet, CrashPlan, VMware's Mozy, Symantec’s Norton Online Backup, McAfee Online Backup, and SOS Online Backup.
It also competes with services from Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon.
“With the introduction of new technologies and market entrants, we expect competition to intensify in the future,” Carbonite added in a recent company statement.
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Ed Silverstein is a TechZone360 contributor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by
Jennifer Russell