Security Solution Provider Superstar Optiv Files For IPO

After months of rumors of an IPO on the horizon, security solution provider Optiv Security is finally hitting the public market.

Denver-based Optiv officially filed its S-1 registration filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Friday, intending to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "OPTV."

Optiv declined to comment to CRN about the filing.

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According to the S-1 filing, Optiv hopes to raise around $100 million in funding, although it did not say how many shares it planned to sell or at what price. It said it hopes to put the financing toward investments in "short-term demand deposits at various financial institutions," general corporate purposes, and to pay down its significant debt, which totaled $651.8 million at the end of September.

Optiv is primarily owned by private equity firm Blackstone Group, which had previously owned Accuvant.

Optiv has played an influential role in the security market since early 2015, when it closed the merger between security powerhouses Accuvant and FishNet Security. The combined companies created a $1.5 billion security behemoth, which assumed the name Optiv in April 2015.

Optiv has continued to expand since its merger, unveiling the acquisitions of identity and access management company Advancive in April, third-party risk application company Evantix in May, and New England security solution provider Adaptive Communications in June.

According to the S-1 filing, Optiv had sales of $643.8 million for the nine months ending Sept. 30, a drop of 1 percent year over year. The company has seen dropping security technology revenue, down 8 percent year over year to $490.3 million, and rising services sales, up 30 percent year over year to $153.4 million. Optiv reported a loss of $5.7 million on those sales, compared with a loss of $13.6 million in the same period the year before.

For the full year last year, Optiv reported revenue of $947.3 million, up 134 percent year over year, with a 136 percent increase in its security technology business to $783 million and a 126 percent increase in its security services business to $164.3 million. It reported a loss of $14.4 million on those 2015 sales.

It has been a relatively slow year overall when it comes to tech IPOs, although some other security companies have also filed for their initial public offerings. Dell SecureWorks, an Optiv competitor, filed for its IPO in April, launching into the public market later that month.

Blue Coat Systems also filed an S-1 for an IPO, but shortly after announced its acquisition by Symantec. There have been reports that next-generation endpoint security company Carbon Black could be readying for an IPO.