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Cloud SaaS firm SunGard files for $100m IPO, may yet be acquired before it gets there
Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) firm SunGard Data Systems, Inc. has filed for an initial public offering and is looking to raise $100 million, although the possibility of it being acquired before going public is still present.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the $100 million figure is likely a placeholder number, and the company could raise as much as $750 million.
The IPO will be the first time SunGard has been public since it was acquired by for $11.4 billion in 2005 by Silver Lake Partners TPG Capital, Bain Capital, Blackstone Group Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, KKR & Co and Providence Equity Partners; the previous owners will continue to maintain a majority interest in the company post float.
Founded in 1982, SunGard provides SaaS solutions for the educational and financial services industries. The company operates across four markets. Financial Systems, Higher Education, Public Sector, and Availability Services.
It’s SaaS offerings include Hadoop support along with a Big Data in the cloud offering among other services.
May not make IPO
Despite filing for an IPO, speculation is rife still that the company may never make it that far with potential suitors still in the wings.
Gillian Tan at The WSJ reports that SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc., Fidelity National Information Services Inc. and others have expressed interest, “according to people familiar with the matter.”
As we reported when rumors of an IPO first emerged in May, SunGard is said to be one of the longest-held investments in private equity history, and will cross its tenth acquisition birthday this August; it’s exceptional for private equity firms to hold onto a company like SunGard for so long.
The IPO will only partly address the exceptional long term positions of the firms, whereas an acquisition would finally allow them to cash out in full.
SunGard has had a spotty history financially, attributed by some as the reason the private equity funds have failed to cash out before now, but its 2014 total revenue wasn’t totally shabby, coming in at $2.8 billion, up two percent year on year, with operating income of $426 million. Debt, however, stood at $4.7 billion with $447 million in cash at hand.
The IPO, if it goes ahead, is expected to take place in September.
Image credit: citydays/Flickr/CC by 2.0
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