Taleo, a leading provider of on-demand employee hiring and retention software, priced its 6.7 million share offering at $14, the low end of its $14-$16 range. The San Francisco, CA-based company generated nearly $68 million in sales for the twelve month period ended June 30, 2005, making it one of the largest pure-play providers of on-demand software (which characterizes software that is provided over the web on a hosted basis). Citigroup was the lead underwriter on the deal. The stock is expected to open for trading on Thursday morning on the Nasdaq under the symbol "TLEO".
Taleo's IPO comes just three months after similarly-sized employee hiring software firm Kenexa (KNXA; $55 million in trailing sales) tapped the public markets back on June 24, 2005. Kenexa, which also provides its solutions through an on-demand software model, has gained 17% from its $12 offer price. Other publicly-traded on-demand software firms include CRM software providers Salesforce.com (CRM) and RightNow Technologies (RNOW), both IPOs from the class of 2004. Both Salesforce.com and RightNow have been strong performers over the last few months, currently up 113% and 98% from their respective IPO prices.
