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Opsware Plans $150M stock Sale

Carrier Hotels Staff Posted Apr 26, 2004

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Opsware Inc. is going back to the markets. The Sunnyvale, Calif. maker of data center automation software this morning filed plans with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell up to $150 million of stock to the public.

In its earlier incarnation as Loudcloud, Opsware filed the last major IPO of the dot-com era. In August 2002 it shifted its focus from managed hosting to software, selling its hosting business to EDS. Opsware's chairman and co-founder is Internet pioneer Marc Andreessen, who helped write the Mosaic browser and was a founder of Netscape. The company's software enables data center operators to more easily provision services and manage patches.

Opsware shares have risen from $4 a year ago to $8.08 in trading late Friday. It becomes the latest in a series of Internet-related companies to announce plans to sell shares, as the technology turnaround makes Wall Street financing more accessible.

The company's filing of Form S-3 with the SEC says Opsware may "issue common stock from time to time, up to an aggregate $150 million. Proceeds will be utilized for general corporate purposes."