comScore Heads for the Nasdaq

Internet ratings firm comScore is going public, with an IPO aimed at raising up to $86.25 million. The company filed yesterday in the US with the Securities and Exchange Commission to list on the Nasdaq National Market.

Virginia-based comScore, formed in 1999, plans to list under the symbol 'SCOR' but has yet to reveal the number of shares in the offer or their expected price range. The online analytics sector is sufficiently hot property for the firm, quite small by Wall Street standards, to have an impressive stable of backers.

comScore reached $66.3m in revenue last year with a sizeable $10.9m cash flow from operations. Revenues come primarily (75%) from subscription fees, which are generally popular with potential investors. Shares will be offered both by comScore itself and one or more of its stockholders who include Accel Partners (holders of 27.3%), JPMorgan Partners (11.6%), Institutional Venture Partners (10.1%) and Lehman Brothers (8.1%). The IPO will be underwritten by firms including Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank.

The company made its first annual profit only last year, and points out in its prospectus: 'Although we were profitable in each quarter of 2006, we were not profitable in 2005, and we had, at December 31, 2006, an accumulated deficit of $99.5 million.' comScore has raised more than $92m in total in venture capital funding and is already being described as 'one to watch' by www.247wallst.com .

There are obvious potential avenues for near future growth. In 2006, the company generated just 9% of its sales from outside the US market. It opened a London office in 2005, and international expansion is likely to loom large in its plans alongside ideas for measuring online video consumption and Internet activity on wireless phones.

comScore is online at www.comscore.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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