Friday, August 8, 2008

Rackspace Raises $187.5M In IPO

San Antonio-based Rackspace launched its initial public offering Thursday, saying that it raised $187.5M from the sale of 15 million shares of the firm. Rackspace is a provider of colocation and Internet hosting services. The IPO is the first venture-backed IPO to hit the public markets since Q1, in what is the longest dry stretch for IPOs in several years. Rackspace's shares were offered at $12.50 per share, towards the lower end of its estimated $12.00 to $16.00 opening price. Rackspace was venture bacbacked ekd by Norwest Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, along with others. The IPO was underwritten by Goldman, Sachs & Co., Credit Suisse, Merril Lynch & Co., WR Hambrecht & Co., Jeffries & Company, Cowen and Company, RBC Capital Markets, JMP Securities, Signal Hill, and E*TRADE Securities. The successful IPO follows an earlier attempt, in 2000, for an IPO by the firm. The company had filed for an IPO then, but pulled its offering after the dot com crash.