Tech Dealmaker Awards

Shaw

Woburn-based font and imaging software provider Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., completed its initial public offering of 11 million shares of common stock at $12 on July 25, 2007 to reduce the company’s debt and to provide liquidity for investors.

Monotype sold 6.5 million for gross proceeds of $78 million, and the other 4.5 million were sold by certain Monotype stockholders, according to Vikki Quick, Monotype corporate communications manager.

Monotype was a subsidiary of global conglomerate Agfa Corp. In 2004, the management team and TA Associates bought the company from Agfa to gain greater control over the firm’s future. In 2006, Monotype made several acquisitions to expand its font library and its global presence. In doing so, the company racked up debt that the IPO was able to reduce, Quick said. Monotype used a portion of the proceeds of the IPO to redeem shares of preferred stock, she said.

“We raised a significant amount of capital in a difficult IPO market. Through a combination of net proceeds from the deal and borrowings under our term loan, we were able to reduce our total debt by approximately 35 percent, which has allowed us to redirect cash flows from debt service to funding growth,” Quick said.

“We’d like to think that our IPO has drawn attention to fonts and font technologies as viable and valuable IP-protected software assets, markets and uses,” Quick said. “We’d like to believe we’ve helped put fonts on the map and in the conscience of investors.”

— Bridget Botelho

Category

Initial Public Offering

The Deal

Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc.’s initial public offering of 11 million shares of common stock at $12 per share

Key Executives

President and CEO Douglas Shaw and senior vice president and CFO Jacqueline Arthur

Deal advisers

Legal: Goodwin Procter LLP and Davis Polk & Wardwell
Underwriters: Bank of America, Jefferies & Co., William Blair & Co., Needham & Co., and Canaccord Adams
Investors: TA Associates, D. B. Zwirn, investing employees

• Platinum Sponsor:
• Gold Sponsors: Capital Source
  Silicon Valley Bank
  TM Capital
  Vitale, Caturano & Co.
• Silver Sponsors: Capital IQ
  Citizens Bank
• Supporting Sponsors: Mass High Tech
  Preston Productions
  Trinity Communications

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