Infoblox Targets $125 Million IPO

Infoblox, which specializes in automated IP address management (IPAM) and other network automation, data center and security products, filed a Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission -- the usual first step down the path toward an initial public offering (IPO).

According to the S-1, Infoblox seeks to raise as much as $125 million. It has not specified the number of shares it will offer, or the expected price-per-share. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group have been hired to manage the IPO, Infoblox said in a statement, and proceeds will be used for working capital, general corporate purposes and, potentially, acquisitions.

Based in Santa Clara, Calif., Infoblox was founded in 1999, and in May 2010 acquired Netcordia, a company specializing in network change and configuration management. In the S-1 filing, Infoblox said its revenue had more than doubled in the past two years: $61.7 million in 2009 to $132.8 million in 2011. In the year ended July 31, 2011, it posted a net loss of $5.3 million, a decline from the $7 million profit it had the previous year.

The S-1 also disclosed that Sequoia Capital owns 29 percent of Infoblox, which plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BLOX.

Infoblox has had a channel program for most of its existence. The company has also been particularly active around the IPv6 transition, and in a summer 2011 survey, suggested that 80 percent of enterprise IT managers didn't feel educated enough to tackle IPv6 migration, and that half didn't know which of their network elements supported IPv6 presently.

"People aren't really sure what to make of all the press coverage, and there is a certain amount of it that's hype," Cricket Liu, Infoblox's vice president of architecture and a well-known consultant on IPv6 issues, told CRN in July. "But it's difficult for these companies to separate the wheat from the chaff and understand what they need to do today."