Rubicon Project, the US-based developer of an automated advertising platform, has generated almost $101.6m from its initial public offering, though the company floated at the low end of its $15-17 range.
The IPO involved the sale of about 6.77 million shares, 5.4 million of which were offered by Rubicon and 1.35 million by selling shareholders including media conglomerate News Corp and IDG Ventures Vietnam, a regional corporate venturing subsidiary of IT media company IDG.
News Corp led an $18m round raised by Rubicon Project in 2010 and was the company’s second largest shareholder prior to the IPO with a 19.3% stake. It sold almost 850,000 of its 5.6 million shares, generating a $12.75m return.
IDG Ventures Vietnam first backed the company in its $15m series B round in 2008 and held a 3.6% stake, which was reduced to 2.6% when it sold 159,000 shares equating to a return of about $2.4m. GE Capital and NBC Universal, which had jointly invested in Rubicon Project through their Peacock Equity joint venture, each held 2.4% stakes that were lowered to 1.7% when they both divested approximately 107,000 shares, making a $1.6m return each.
The company’s other two significant shareholders, Clearstone Venture Partners, which held a 21.7% share, and Mayfield Fund, which owned 14.2%, did not divest shares in the offering, though other shareholders including Allen & Company and University of California, Berkeley Foundation each sold roughly 12% of their minor stakes.
Founded in California in 2007, Rubicon Project owns a real-time cloud and big data computing system that has automated the buying and selling of online advertising. It had raised $60m in equity prior to the offering, and will use the proceeds from the IPO for general corporate purposes.
Morgan Stanley & Co., Goldman, Sachs & Co. and RBC Capital Markets were appointed as joint book-running managers for the offering, with Needham & Company, Oppenheimer & Co. and LUMA Securities acting as co-managers.
Rubicon Project’s shares opened yesterday at $17.50 on its first day of trading, and rose to close at $20.09.