VMware in $1.1 Billion IPO; Largest Tech IPO Since 2004
August 17, 2007
August 17, 2007
Cleary Gottlieb represented the underwriters, led by Citigroup Global Markets Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and Lehman Brothers Inc., in VMware Inc.’s initial public offering of 37,950,000 shares of Class A common stock (including exercise of an over-allotment option), the largest technology sector IPO since Google went public in 2004. The offering priced on August 13 at $29 per share, valuing VMware at $11 billion; by close of the first day of trading on the NYSE, VMware was valued at nearly $20 billion, a market cap few other technology companies have exceeded. In the two weeks following pricing, VMware shares have traded as high as $73.95. The offering closed on August 17.
Prior to the IPO, VMware was wholly owned by EMC Corporation. EMC continues to own approximately 90% of VMware.
VMware is the leading provider of virtualization solutions, with a customer base that includes 100% of the Fortune 100 and more than 84% of the Fortune 1,000. VMware’s core virtualization technology enables multiple software applications and operating systems to share underlying hardware (such as a single server) safely by encapsulating each application and operating system in its own “virtual machine.” VMware’s suite of virtualization solutions addresses a range of complex IT problems that include infrastructure optimization, business continuity, software lifecycle management and desktop management.