Thursday, August 11, 2011

Carbonite collects $62M in IPO, off early goals

By Rodney Brown

Online backup company Carbonite Inc. held a weaker than planned initial public offering yesterday, raising $62.5 million - well below the initial goal of as much as $122 million when the IPO was announced in May.

Earlier yesterday, the company downgraded its initial price per share from the $15 to $17 range to the $10 to $11 range. The stock hit the markets at $10, bringing in the $62.5 million. If all the shares set aside to underwiters for over-allotments get sold, the value of the IPO could climb by an additional $9.3 million.

Carbonite, which was founded in 2005 by David Friend and Jeff Flowers, was backed with more than $70 million in capital from Crosslink Capital of San Francisco, Calif.; Performance Equity of Stamford, Conn.; Menlo Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif.; and CommonAngels of Lexington.

When it filed for the IPO in May - after more than a year of anticipation following Friend’s statement that it would go public - Carbonite reported that it had grown from $14.1 million in bookings in 2008 to $54.1 million in 2010. The company generated $38.6 million in revenue in 2010, with a loss of $25.8 million, which it credits primarily to customer acquisition costs from advertising.

Joint book-running managers for Carbonite’s IPO are BofA Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC. In addition, William Blair & Co. LLC, Canaccord Genuity Inc., Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. and Pacific Crest Securities Inc. are acting as co-managers.

In April, co-founder Flowers stepped down as CTO of Carbonite, replaced from within by former architect and manager Eric Golin. Flowers stayed with the company as chief architect, however, while Golin has a background of having served as CTO at a number of public tech companies, including Content Objects Inc. and Eons Inc.