Fluidigm (GMS: FLDM proposed) (Quote, News & Chart) is the deal. Its industry sector is scientific and technical instruments(Chart).
Should the deal get out the door, it will be the first IPO priced since Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX) (Quote, News & Chart) sold 15 million shares at $12.50 each on Aug. 7. The Rackspace offering came to market as a Dutch auction and splattered on take off. It closed its opening day at $10.01 and, on Friday, Sept. 12, at $9.11, DOWN 27.1 percent from its initial offering price.
Rackspace is a San Antonio-based provider of Web sites, Web-based IT systems, and computing as a service.
Now back to the future and this week’s IPO.
Forecast from Fluidigm
Fluidigm, with $7.3 million in revenues for 2007 and $5.2 million for the six months ended June 28, 2008, stated in its prospectus: “We have incurred significant losses since our inception (in 1999), had an accumulated deficit of $149.1 million as of June 28, 2008, and expect to incur losses for the foreseeable future.”
On Sept. 12, the Standard & Poor’s 500 was DOWN 14.8 percent year-to-date. The scientific and technical instrument industry index was DOWN nearly 19 percent year-to-date. Conclusion: You have an industry underperforming a weak stock market.
Now let’s turn back to the company.
Fluidigm is a San Francisco-based developer of integrated fluidic circuits to automate drug development and other life sciences research.
For the year ending December 31, 2007, Fluidigm reported a net loss of $25.5 million on total revenues of $7.3 million, compared with a net loss of $23.6 million on total revenues of $6.4 million for the same period a year ago.
For the six months ending June 28, 2008, Fluidigm reported a net loss of $15.3 million on total revenues of $5.2 million, compared with a net loss of $13 million on total revenues of $3 million for the same period a year ago.
Bankers plan to offer 5.3 million shares at $14 to $16 each to raise $79.5 million.
The deal is expected to be priced Thursday evening and to trade Friday morning. Maybe by then, the air may have cleared somewhat to launch the deal.