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Isilion and Aruba’s public debut
si Team
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Keerti Melkote founded wireless LAN switch start-up Aruba Networks went public on March 27 2006, and its initial stock price surged by nearly 30 percent in the first day of trading on the Nasdaq exchange. Aruba offered 8 million shares, priced at $11 per share. With a Nasdaq ticker symbol ‘ARUN,’ the stock opened at $14. The stock closed at $13.5 on April 30, 2006.

The Sunnyvale, CA-based company—which lists Google, the U.S. Air Force and Ohio State University among its customers—provides secure access to data, voice and video applications across wireless and wireline networks. Some estimates project the global WLAN market will rise from about $1.5 billion today to between $3 billion and US$4 billion in the next four years.

The company reported a net loss of $11.7 million for the six months ending January 31, 2007, and revenue of $51.1 million. Over the 12 months ending July 31, 2006, Aruba Networks reported a net loss of $12 million and revenue of $72.5 million. While Aruba Networks’ bottom line is in the red, its revenue is improving.

Last December, Isilon Systems joined the growing list of storage vendors to go public and received a warm welcome from investors. Isilon (NASDAQ:ISLN) skyrocketed in its stock market debut On December 15, 2006, with shares rising 77 percent in the best opening performance for a technology IPO in more than six years.

The Seattle digital storage company took off with a bang from the moment it started trading, with an opening price of $25 per share—close to double the $13 offering price.

However, the stock traded at around $12 (below the IPO price on April 30, 2006).
The 246-person company, which helps customers such as Kodak, MySpace and NBC manage their digital storage needs, raised $108 million through the public sale of stock. It initially was looking to pull in about $80 million.

Sujal Patel, the former Real Networks manager who co-founded Isilon in 2001, holds 5 percent of the company. The 32- year-old serves as Isilon’s chief technology officer.

Both Aruba Networks and Isilon Networks have been included among the si20 companies. Webex and Covansys which have been acquired is dropped from the si20 list.

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