Facebook was the initial public offering that people everywhere anticipated (and then lamented), but what really defined 2012 was a series of marvelous, high-profile, public debuts by enterprise software makers.
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You’ll notice that the gap between the No. 1 IPO — Facebook — and everyone else is huge.
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But look beyond the dollars raised, and what you’ll find is that eight out of the 10 companies on the list make software and services for other businesses. Several of them proved to be Wall Street heroes, rescuing a technology IPO market that flatlined when Facebook tanked.
1. Facebook: $16 billion
Eight years after creating Facebook from his Harvard dorm, Mark Zuckerberg took his social networking company public in what became the largest technology IPO in U.S. history.
Facebook set a $38 IPO price and raised $16 billion through a May 18 offering that valued the eight-year-old social network at $104 billion. Zuckerberg rang the bell remotely from Facebook’s Menlo Park campus. Then reality set it in.
Nasdaq botched the social network’s debut so badly that it became a banker’s worst nightmare. The exchange has since offered $62 million to pay for its mistakes. Investors, especially those that missed their chance to flip shares in the no-pop IPO, quickly soured on the overvalued company. By August, shares were selling for more than half off, though they’ve regained some of those losses since the summer.
Further proving that bigger is not always better, Facebook still faces consolidated class action lawsuits for allegedly disclosing material information about financials to privileged insiders, but not to the public.
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2. Workday: $732.55 million
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Cloud software company Workday showed us what a successful initial public offering could like with a stellar opening on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 12. The seven-year-old company sold 22.75 million shares, plus 3.4 million more through over-allotment options, to bring in $732.55 million.
Workday’s short stint on the public market has been a bit of a roller coaster. The human resources software-marker priced its shares at $28 for trading and experienced a 72 percent pop in its first-day trading. Better still, it’s currently on an upward climb and is trading in the mid $50’s. Not too bad for just two months of work.
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3. Splunk: $263.93 million
Splunk is currently in a small slump, but when the enterprise data software company, which helps businesses with big data needs, went public on April 19, it showed the world that Wall Street was shifting its sights away from consumer companies to enterprise firms.
Splunk priced its shares at $17 and sold 15.525 million of them for a healthy $264 million raise. It experienced an astonishing 108.7 percent jump before closing at $35.48 for the day. Founded in 2004, Splunk was the first true big data company to go public.
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4. Palo Alto Networks: $260.40 million
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Computer security company Palo Alto Networks seemed insulated from the tech stock drama of 2012 when it went public on July 20. The company, which priced its 6.2 million shares for sale higher than expected at $42 a piece, managed to close its opening day with a 27 percent gain, something that was quite remarkable in the aftermath of Facebook’s bungled debut. In fact, Palo Alto Networks was one of the first technology companies to brave the market after Facebook had scared investors and companies away.
Palo Alto Network’s market reception warmed even more with time and shares climbed as high as $72. Then in September, the security provider disappointed Wall Street with a fourth quarter loss and investors started moving away from its firewalls of promised safety. Now, it’s currently hovering closer to its day one closing price of $53.13.
5. ServiceNow: $241.16 million
Less than two weeks before Palo Alto Network’s coming out party, cloud computing and IT management company ServiceNow made its debut with the biggest IPO pop since Facebook cast its dark shadow on going public.
ServiceNow priced at $18 and sold nearly 13.4 million shares, when accounting for overallotment shares, for an impressive $241.16 million take. The company, which maintains the super-cool “NOW” ticker symbol, closed at $24.60, up 37 percent for the day. Since its July 9 unveiling, ServiceNow has remained one cool cucumber, steadily increasing its value from $2.17 billion to $4 billion.
With the market-normalizing offering, ServiceNow helped pave the way for the bigger and better enterprise tech IPOs that came later in the year.
Go to the next page to see IPOs 6-10.
6. ExactTarget: $161.50 million
Ten-year-old email marketing company ExactTarget successfully got the word out about its March 22 IPO. The software-as-a-service provider made $161.5 million selling 8.5 million shares at $19 apiece. It also came out of the gate strong with a 32 percent leap on day one, but has since lost some of its word-of-mouth appeal. These days ExactTarget is trading around its IPO price of $19.
7. Guidewire Software: $132.31 million
Making software for insurance companies paid off handsomely for 11-year-old Guidewire Software, which claimed its place on the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 25 and was the first U.S. technology company to go public in 2012. Guidewire priced at $13 a share and made $132.31 million by selling close to 10.2 million shares.
Guidewire’s opening day was a good one. The rest of the year proved to be even better. It closed up 32 percent at $17.12 on day one and is currently trading at nearly double that sum. On opening day, Guidewire chief executive Marcus Ryu said with some foresight, “We’ll just continue to do what we’ve done and the stock price will take care of itself.”
8. Infoblox: $120 million
On April 20, just one day after Splunk’s spunky IPO, network automation company Infoblox had its initial public offering and demonstrated that investors had an insatiable appetite for enterprise technology companies.
The Santa Clara, Calif., company priced at $16 share, sold 7.5 million shares, and raised $120 million through its offering. The stock opened up 40 percent and closed its first day trading at $21.30. Today, Infoblox is coasting a bit lower, around $18 a share.
9. Vocera Communications: $107.64 million
Vocera, which makes mobile communication products for hospitals, priced at $16 a share for its March 28 initial public offering. The San Jose-based company popped by 40 percent at market open and looked like an extremely healthy stock through September. Vocera climbed as high as $32.97 a share before sliding back to the mid $20s where it stands today.
10. Kayak: $104.65 million
“One and done” travel search service Kayak, one of the two consumer-facing companies to make the top 10 tech IPO list, took a trip to the Nasdaq on July 20 and came home with millions in souvenirs to show for it. Kayak priced at $26 and raised $104.65 million by selling more than 4 million shares, overallotment shares included.
Kayak picked up a $1 billion-plus valuation with an IPO that saw its shares soar and close at $33.18 on its first day of trading. It took a couple of tries and a total off eight years for Kayak to go public. Shockingly, less than four months later, the online travel agency agreed to sell itself to Priceline for $1.8 billion in cash and stock.
Photo credits: Wall St. photo/Shutterstock, Facebook, Workday/Twitter, Splunk/Twitter, Palo Alto Networks/Facebook, ServiceNow/Facebook, ExactTarget/Facebook, Infoblox/Facebook, Sequoia Capital