Wi-Fi Equipment Maker, Aerohive Networks, Publicly Files for IPO

On Thursday, the Sunnyvale, CA company, Aerohive Networks submitted a public S-1 form to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Form S-1 is an SEC filing used by companies planning on going public to register their securities with the SEC as the "registration statement by the Securities Act of 1933."

The S-1 contains the basic business and financial information on an issuer with respect to a specific securities offering. Investors may use the prospectus to consider the merits of an offering and make educated investment decisions.

According to Forbes, Aerohive Networks is suggesting that its goal is to raise $75 million in the IPO and will seek to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “HIVE.” Goldman Sachs is left lead along with BofA Merrill Lynch, Piper Jaffray, William Blair and JMP Securities. At this time however, it has neglected to give a projected share count or initial prince range.

In its SEC filing, Aerohive Networks has listed that it concentrates on the healthcare, government and retail sectors. To date, it has 11,500 customers. Several years ago in 2011 and 2012, the company showed strong revenue growth.

Although the first three quarters of 2013 reported $76.9 million in total revenue, a number that represents a higher total than all of 2012, the company also reports that net losses have also grown consistently. In 2011 the figure was $14.8 million and $24.7 million in 2012. The number in 2013 grew to $25.4 million.

Aerohive Networks has generated more than $100 million in venture funding. Some of its existing investors include Northern Light Venture Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, KPCB and DAG Ventures, which maintain ownership of nearly 75 percent of the company.

The company makes access points for enterprise networks. This is a market that has long been dominated by Cisco Systems with a host of other companies like Aruba Networks and Ruckus Wireless splitting up the remaining market share. In fact, late 2012 had Ruckus filing for $126 million IPO.

Aerohive Networks tries to differentiate itself with a cloud-managed network controller that can easily manage Wi-Fi networks across multiple buildings and global locations.

In a blog post, Timothy Keating, founder and CEO of pre-IPO investment company Keating Capital, said that he expects that the IPO market will continue to boom in 2014. He said "Large public companies are struggling to grow their top lines. In a slow growth economy with full stock market valuations and no competition from fixed income, public investors are -- and almost assuredly always will be -- willing to pay a premium for the 20-30 percent + expected revenue growth that is typical of many venture capital-backed technology companies that have recently gone public."