Wireless technology and service company InPhonic Inc. enjoyed a major initial public offering last week, raising a total of $108.9 million in net proceeds. The company initially expected to raise about $83.5 million.
InPhonic’s stock began trading at around $19 per share, but quickly jumped to $25 per share leveling off to about $24 later in the week.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, InPhonic said it would use $10.5 million from its IPO to repay existing debt, $10.1 million to pay accrued and unpaid dividends on preferred stock, and would put the remainder toward working capital and other items, including potential acquisitions.
InPhonic operates a number of notable businesses. The company sells wireless services and handsets on the Internet through its own sites and through the likes of Yahoo!, Quixtar, MSN, AOL and Google. The company also operates Liberty Wireless, a mobile virtual network operator, through Sprint PCS’ network. Finally, InPhonic sells wireless data services such as unified communications, wireless e-mail and mobile marketing.
InPhonic makes money from commissions, bonuses and other payments it receives from carriers as customers are activated on wireless networks, as well as payments from customers for wireless services and devices. Last year, the company scored $136.1 million in revenues and reported a net loss of $20.2 million. In its most recent quarter, InPhonic scored revenues of $54.1 million on a net loss of $1.1 million.
InPhonic is the second wireless company to launch a recent IPO-Jamdat Mobile became the industry’s first gaming firm to go public in September-after a long drought in the public markets. However MetroPCS and CellStar Corp. have both recently postponed offering plans.
Wireless networking and clearinghouse company Syniverse Technologies Inc. also recently filed for an IPO that could raise as much as $425.5 million, according to recent filings with the SEC. The company requested the trading symbol SVR.
The IPO is scheduled for sometime next year.
Syniverse sells a range of wireless technologies and counts more than 300 carrier customers in 30 countries, including the likes of Cingular Wireless L.L.C., Verizon Wireless, America Moviles in Latin America, China Unicom, Japan’s KDDI and SK Telecom of Korea. In its network services portfolio, the company offers various SS7 signaling and roaming services. Syniverse’s clearing and settlement technologies ensure billing, roaming and messaging interoperability, and its call-processing offerings support authentication, fraud detection and subscriber verification. Syniverse’s wireless local number portability services have scored it contracts with the five largest carriers in the United States.
In its SEC filing, Syniverse laid out part of its growth strategy. The company said it would look to shore up its domestic position while growing its international carrier business. The company also said it would develop a standard international roaming solution, sell Voice over Wi-Fi products to businesses, and develop wireless directory-assistance services for carriers.
Syniverse reported revenues of $82.5 million in its most recent quarter, a figure down slightly from the company’s previous quarter but an increase of almost 19 percent compared with the same quarter a year ago.
