Solid tech IPOs bode well for local companies

Two tech companies made strong Wall Street debuts today, another positive sign for Triangle businesses hoping to pull off their own IPOs.

SS&C Technologies, a Connecticut software company, and Meru Networks, a California maker of Wi-Fi equipment, saw their shares rise today after selling stock through initial public offerings.

That bodes well for companies such as Lulu, the Raleigh-based online book publisher, which is preparing for an IPO in Canada, and Cary-based SciQuest, which filed plans for a U.S. IPO last week. Read more about SciQuest's IPO plans and its CEO Stephen Wiehe in our recent stories.

Motricity, a wireless company that moved its headquarters to the West Coast from Durham, also has filed IPO plans. That company still has offices in Durham and employs about 100 people locally.

Today's successful tech IPOs also could spur other local companies that have been considering such deals to raise money for expansion.

The broader stock market rally is reviving interest in IPOs, which fell out of favor for much of last year.

“The sentiment for IPOs has really improved,” Josef Schuster, the Chicago-based founder of IPOX Capital Management and manager of the Direxion Long/Short Global IPO Fund, told Bloomberg News. “It’s worthwhile to consider these stocks if they price at the upper end of the range to buy them.”

Schuster said he purchased shares of SS&C and Meru in their IPOs yesterday.

SS&C shares climbed as much as 8.9 percent to $16.34 on the Nasdaq. The company raised $161 million yesterday after pricing 10.7 million shares at $15 each. Meru shares jumped as much as 34 percent to $20.05 after selling $65.8 million of shares at $15 each.

MaxLinear Inc., which designs semiconductors that let people watch television on their mobile devices, raised 28 percent more than the Carlsbad, Calif.-based company originally sought in its IPO last week.

The same day, Calix Inc., which sells connection equipment to telephone companies, priced its offering at the high end of its forecast range. MaxLinear jumped 34 percent in its first day of trading, while Calix gained 16 percent.