NEWS
NEWS
NEWS
Optical networking startup Acacia files for $125M IPO
Nutanix Inc. isn’t the only data center startup that filed for a public offering this week. While the converged infrastructure vendor was basking in the limelight, Acacia Communications Inc. quietly informed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it’s also planning to hit the stock market early next year with the goal of raising $125 million, a target that should be easily attainable given its healthy finances.
Unlike Nutanix and most of the other high-growth startups that made a move toward a public offering in recent quarters, the six-year-old Acacia is profitable, which should go a long way toward convincing investors about the merits of its business model. The company closed the last fiscal year with a net income of $13.5 million on $146.2 million in sales that increased to $170.5 million during the first nine months of 2015, a more than 60 annual percent increase not including fourth quarter earnings.
The last enterprise technology startup that presented Wall Street with such well-balanced finances sheet was Atlassian Inc., which saw its share price close over 30 percent above its target price on the first day of trading. Like the Australian collaboration giant, Acacia credits its robust bottom line to the fact that it doesn’t have to spend nearly as much on marketing as its unprofitable peers, although for a different reason. Whereas Atlassian managed to successfully implement a mostly word-of-mouth sales model, the networking startup relies on partners to promote its equipment through their already well-established channels.
Acacia’s filing claims that the number of organizations using its bandwidth-boosting optical modules increased from eight in 2011 to more than twenty by September this year. The devices make use of custom chips specifically developed to support the heavy-duty networks powering the world’s largest service providers, including carriers and cable companies. The startup even has a product line designed for the submarine cables that carry web traffic across continents.
Image via Geralt
Since you’re here …
… We’d like to tell you about our mission and how you can help us fulfill it. SiliconANGLE Media Inc.’s business model is based on the intrinsic value of the content, not advertising. Unlike many online publications, we don’t have a paywall or run banner advertising, because we want to keep our journalism open, without influence or the need to chase traffic.The journalism, reporting and commentary on SiliconANGLE — along with live, unscripted video from our Silicon Valley studio and globe-trotting video teams at theCUBE — take a lot of hard work, time and money. Keeping the quality high requires the support of sponsors who are aligned with our vision of ad-free journalism content.
If you like the reporting, video interviews and other ad-free content here, please take a moment to check out a sample of the video content supported by our sponsors, tweet your support, and keep coming back to SiliconANGLE.
