There haven't been many companies willing to pry open the IPO window, but OpenTable Inc.
today said it was going to give it a shot.
The San Francisco-based company, which operates an online network that enables diners to make restaurant reservations, filed to go public and raise up to $40 million. Merrill Lynch & Co. is the lead underwriter on the deal, with Allen & Co. LLC, Stifel Nicolaus & Co. and ThinkEquity LLC acting as co-managers.
The company posted a $149,000 loss for the first nine months of 2008 on $41.3 million in revenue, compared to a $191,000 loss on 29.4 million in revenues during the first three quarters of 2007.
The company's largest shareholder is Benchmark Capital, with 26.4% of OpenTable. Impact Venture Partners owns 17.5%, IAC/InteractiveCorp. owns about 11% and Integral Capital Partners has a 7.5% stake.
According to Renaissance Capital's IPOhome.com, OpenTable is only the second company to file an S-1 this month (MediData, which offers a hosted technology platform for managing clinical trial data, filed to go public earlier this week). In January 2008, 26 companies filed to go public. The last IPO to price was Grand Canyon Education Corp. [
LOPE], back in November.
-- Olaf de Senerpont DoimsSee Jan. 30 press release from OpenTableSee OpenTable S-1 from SEC.gov
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