Eloqua’s IPO Filing Brings Marketing Automation Into Public Spotlight
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- Published in DemandGen Reports
Eloqua announced Wednesday that it has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of shares of its common stock. The company plans to list on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol ELOQ.
The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not been determined. However, an article on The Wall Street Journal’s web site estimated the company planned to sell up to an estimated $100 million of common stock in the offering.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. will serve as joint book-runners for the offering, with JMP Securities LLC, Needham & Company, LLC, and Pacific Crest Securities LLC acting as co-managers.
While Eloqua’s move into the public markets was expected, the timing came as somewhat of a surprise to analysts because of the recent volatility of of the financial markets, which have caused other companies to delay IPOs.
In January 2011 Eloqua CEO Joe Payne said the company was meeting with analysts and taking steps to prepare for a public offering. “Great companies and great markets have a tendency to go public,” he then said in an exclusive interview with DemandGen Report. “We believe that [the marketing automation space] is a viable and important market.”
Payne also called the automation space an “inevitable market,” pointing out the direct impact the tools have on revenue generation. “We want to build our business so it’s attractive to investors,” he said. “That’s why we would point towards an IPO.”
Payne said Eloqua has approached the idea of an IPO with care, to ensure that the company stands in the small-to-mid- cap category and avoids getting lost among micro cap stocks. “We think we should have a $400-$500 million valuation,” he said. “To get there, we probably need to make sure we have $100 million-plus in revenue.”
Also in January 2011, Payne predicted that Eloqua would meet the $100 million-revenue mark in 2013 based on the company’s current subscription model and growth track.
While Eloqua is currently a private company, its GAAP revenue, customer account wins and best practices for an open approach among the marketing community are shared knowledge. Payne said the company would be fine with exposing other details that come with an IPO, as Eloqua is already open both internally and externally.
Eloqua has continued its aggressive growth strategy throughout 2011. For first half of 2011, Eloqua surpassed the 1,000 customer mark and now counts more than 80,000 users across the globe. The company also expanded abroad with a new office in Brussels. Europe now has roughly 200 customers and more than 5,000 users across the region. Major companies in EMEA using Eloqua include Sony and TalkTalk.