Stock Market (Photo : Reuters)
Cloud storage company Box revealed on Friday that it's ready to start offering its services to the public, opening up sales for company shares and planning a Jan. 23 debut at the New York Stock Exchange, Inside Bay Area reported.
It's been nearly 10 month since the Los Altos-based company filed for public offering, fielding questions on its financial status and capability to perform in the cloud storage industry.
Now it is ready to start selling and with at least 12.5 million shares being offered at $11 to $13 dollars each, Box has bumped up $162.5 million in Bay Area's first IPO of the year. Currently valued at $1.4 billion, Box is said to set the final share price on Jan. 22, before it begins trading on Jan 23.
"We're incredibly excited for the coming year and the next phase of Box's growth," a spokeswoman for the company stated.
It's certainly been a long time coming for the company, and Box CEO Aaron Levie even jokingly tweeted, "Well that certainly took a while."
The company has faced criticisms of spending too much, as reports have appeared showing that the company reportedly spent 97 cents per dollar on sales and marketing from August to October. It is a downgrade from $1.38 per dollar in March, according to News OK.
Technology Business Research analyst Jillian Mirandi stated, "Over the last few quarters, Box has successfully worked on lowering its sales and marketing costs."
Market intelligence firm Ipreo proposed that this year was likely to be a big year for tech firms and their public offerings, and other reports have stated that the industry could earn up to $85 billion this year.
Now that Box has returned to the IPO, it's possible that the company has new investors under its belt and is likely planning to bank in on the tech IPOs trend. It is possible that it will be the first tech IPO of the year, and one among the first three IPOs.
