Security company Qualys files to go public

Cloud security company Qualys just filed for an initial public offering, making it the latest security company to jump into the public market.

Qualys helps enterprise IT departments remain compliant with any policies or regulations associated with their industries, and gives businesses applications to monitor and stop attacks. The company’s main product is cloud-based, which has become an attractive means of deploying security software, as it easily updated and installed. The QualysGuard Cloud Platform allows businesses to watch for malware, and also scans applications for anything dangerous. It also has a dashboard for organizing what vulnerabilities your company may have.

The company has 5,700 customers across the globe. The company made $76.2 million in revenue in 2011 and made $21.2 million in the first three months of 2012. Qualys has not yet chosen an exchange to offer its stock on, but has decided on its ticker symbol, QLYS.

Security company Palo Alto Networks also filed to go public recently. The company created a firewall that allows businesses to monitor and block only certain parts of an application.

The tech industry has been wary of IPOs ever since Facebook went public in mid-May. Facebook’s IPO was delayed by 30 minutes due to technical difficulties on the morning of May 18 and hasn’t fared well since. The company even pulled gaming company Zynga’s stock down 13 percent that day, forcing a halt on its trading. The effects are being felt across the industry with travel website Kayak recently delaying its IPO.

Qualys has listed a “limited history of profitability,” inability to scale, the cloud security market, and a number of other issues as risks related to investing in its business.

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