Monday, August 1, 2011

Allot looks to raise about $85M with stock offering

By Rodney H. Brown

Allot Communications Ltd., an Israeli IP services provider with North American headquarters in Woburn, reports it is offering up 5.32 million shares of ordinary stock that, if sold at the $16 price range Allot is trading at as of Monday afternoon, would generate approximately $85 million in revenue.

Proceeds from the offering would be used for general corporate purposes, Allot officials said in a release, including the possibility of acquiring or investing in “businesses or products or to obtain the right to use technologies complementary to its business.” Under the offering, Allot (Nasdaq: ALLT) itself is selling 4.5 million ordinary shares, and the company has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 819,750 additional ordinary shares to cover any over-allotments, adding up to 5.32 million.

Unnamed selling shareholders will be offering 965,000 ordinary shares, which will not result in any proceeds coming back to Allot. Joint book-running managers will be BofA Merrill Lynch, Jefferies & Co. Inc. and RBC Capital Markets LLC. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. will act as lead manager and Wunderlich Securities Inc. will act as co-manager.

In June of 2010, Allot landed an unnamed Tier 1 carrier as a client in a deal worth $4.5 million, to supply the company with its Allot Service Gateway Sigma, to help it manage its network traffic.

Allot in June of 2009 moved its North American headquarters from Eden Prairie, Minn., into the new TradeCenter 128 building in Woburn. The company’s system uses deep packet inspection technology to help carriers set policy and manage IP traffic.