UPDATED 11:23 EDT / APRIL 22 2016

NEWS

Year’s first tech IPO flops: Dell SecureWorks misses price target

Five months since the start of the year, it appears that Wall Street still hasn’t fully regained its appetite for tech IPOs. Dell Inc. experienced the market’s reduced interest first hand yesterday after putting shares of its SecureWorks subsidiary up for grabs and raising only $112 million out of the minimum $140 million that it’d hoped to bring home.

The gap widens even further when comparing the sum against the high end of the company’s original $15.5-17.5 percent stock price target, which would have valued the public offering at about $160 million. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s not too big of a loss for Dell. For starters, the $48 million miss represents only a small fraction of the vendor’s annual sales. And according to the NYT, the eight million shares that were put on the auction block didn’t come from its own controlling stake in SecureWorks but rather the subsidiary itself, which will also take all of the proceeds.

In other words, Dell can try and wait for the network protection provider’s stock price to increase in public trading before starting to sell off its shares so as to achieve a bigger return. However, that won’t come as much consolation for the rest of the market, particularly the other technology firms that had hoped to start trading this year but are holding off their plans until the situation improves. Many of those companies are so-called unicorns that have similar financial strategies as the one SecureWorks is pursuing, which some blame as one of the reasons for its disappointing public offering.

The company is increasing its revenue by double-digits every year, but at a significant cost that is obstructing its path toward profitability.  SecureWorks lost $38.5 million in fiscal 2015 and a whopping $72.38 million during fiscal 2016 as part of its growth efforts. Amid the current uncertainty in world markets, it’s no wonder Wall Street is hesitant to invest.

Image via Wikimedia

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