Cloud-storage and enterprise content collaboration platform Box Inc. (NYSE: BOX) priced its initial public offering (IPO) above the expected range on Thursday and watched as shares skyrocketed nearly 80% shortly after those shares began trading on Friday.
The company priced its shares at $14, above the expected range of $11 to $13, and trading opened at $20.20 Friday morning.
Based on the offering price, the company’s valuation rose above the $1.6 billion level, and Box raised $175 million on the 12.5 million shares it sold. Underwriters have a 30-day option on an additional 1.875 million shares.
Investors appear to be unconcerned either with the company’s growing losses or its ability to succeed in what many believe is a commodity market for cloud-based storage. For Box to live up to its triumph, it will have to compete and win against big players like Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) that have offered cloud-based storage for increasingly lower prices.
To combat the commodity-like nature of the market, Box has begun to develop tools and services that will appeal to a wide range of industries. Health care, law and retail are other areas the company is planning to expand into.
As we noted in our preview of the IPO, Box’s revenues have risen sharply, to $124.2 million last year. But losses have been even bigger, coming in at $168.11 million in 2014. At the company’s last venture funding round in July, Box raised $150 million at a valuation of $2.4 billion.
None of the company’s big investors, including CEO Aaron Levie, sold shares in the IPO.
Just after the noon hour, shares traded at $23.82, up about 70%, after posting a high of $24.73 earlier in the morning.
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