Proofpoint IPO Has Good Debut Amid Tech Stock Rollercoaster

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This month Proofpoint Inc,  one of the original security-as-a-service providers, took the plunge and launched its IPO, trading on the NASDAQ Global Market. Gary Steele, CEO, had the honor of ringing the Opening Bell on April 20 to commemorate the event.

IPOs in the anti-spam space are less common than acquisitions. In the past eight years of movement in “big name” security vendors I’m not sure I can think of one that went public. Brightmail was bought by Symantec. FrontBridge was swallowed by Microsoft. CypherTrust went to Secure Computing, which went to McAfee (as did MX Logic). IronPort was acquired by Cisco. Postini was taken by Google.

After 10 years in the market, Proofpoint’s IPO had a solid start selling 6.3 million shares at $13. The open market price was $16.85, up nearly 30 percent. The company is trading on NASDAQ as PFPT.

Proofpoint’s timing proved pretty good, as the NASDAQ had its best day of 2012 last week, following a bumpy period. One of the most popular tech stocks, Apple, hit a three year high last week, however this week that stock started off with a 3.15 percent drop by close; bringing NASDAQ down with it.

In contrast, Proofpoint stock is holding with a close today at $13.10.

The high tech stock most people are awaiting, of course, is Facebook. The plans for launching the IPO was expected in a few weeks, but rumors are flying of delays. Some are reporting that Facebook’s IPO, when it does happen, may be the largest Silicon Valley IPO ever.