NEW YORK-Lightbridge Inc., whose flagship service is online, real-time customer activations for wireless carriers, went public Sept. 27 with a $38 million offering of common stock.
Cowen & Co., New York, lead managed the underwriting of the 3.8 million shares, priced at $10 each. The preliminary prospectus for the offering anticipated an opening share price in the range of $8 to $10. The company’s stock closed on Nasdaq Sept. 30 at $11.75 per share.
Lightbridge, formerly known as Credit Technologies Inc., licenses some of its customer qualification and activation services from Pilot Software Inc. and Trans Union Corp.
Its “Customer Acquisition System,” introduced in 1989 with upgrades since then, “typically enables carriers to qualify applicants and activate service in five to 10 minutes while screening for subscriber fraud, thereby assisting the carriers to close sales at the time when the customer is ready to purchase,” the preliminary offering statement said.
By contrast, Lightbridge said its market research “has indicated that, while the entire acquisition process typically takes between 15 and 30 minutes, it is not unusual for the process to take up to an hour.”
Waltham, Mass.-based Lightbridge also has developed what it calls “a suite of complementary software-based products and services” designed to allow wireless carriers to assemble integrated, customized solutions for efficiently acquiring and retaining customers.
Whereas many companies tapping the public equity markets for the first time are doing so to raise money for at least one major specific project, such is not the case with the Lightbridge IPO.
Except for repaying in full the $1.5 million outstanding on a bank line of credit, Lightbridge said, it “has no specific plans for the use of a substantial portion of the net proceeds of this offering.”
In general, Lightbridge’s goal was to create a public market for its common stock, thereby facilitating future access to the public equity markets and providing liquidity for existing private holders of its securities.
