The price of shares of Salesforce.com, which debuted on the New York Stock Exchange a few hours ago, surged 44pc from its initial public offering price of US$11 before settling at US$15.40, highlighting intense investor interest in the company.
Tech investors have been looking to a successful IPO of Salesforce.com that could spark a renewed interest in technology stocks and judging by the company’s opening performance, they got what they were looking for.
Debuting under the ticker “CRM”, the company’s IPO is being underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities, UBS Investments Bank, Wachovia Securities and William Blair & Company. The company’s IPO is being underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities, UBS Investments Bank, Wachovia Securities and William Blair & Company. Salesforce.com has also granted the underwriters an option to purchase an additional 1.5 million shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.
The public listing was delayed last month because the company’s chief executive Marc Benioff was featured in a New York Times article that may have violated securities rules meant to prevent companies from hyping up their stocks ahead of stock offerings.
The initial offering of some 10m shares will raise Salesforce.com somewhere in the region of US$110m.
By John Kennedy
