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Alien Technology Files for IPO
The tag and reader maker hopes to raise up to $138 million by selling shares of stock.
By Mary Catherine O'Connor
Apr. 14, 2006—Morgan Hill, Calif., RFID systems provider Alien Technology announced yesterday that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to sell up to $138 million of its common stock, according to an SEC Form S-1 filing. The company has not yet revealed how many shares it will sell, the price of those shares or when the sale will begin.
Erik Michielsen, director of RFID research at ABI Research, says the time is right for Alien to make the offering. "Alien is leading the market for EPC Class 1 Gen 1 RFID tags," he explains, "and has strong adoption among consumer packaged goods companies. Now, before the Gen 2 market becomes too competitive, is the best time for this move."
Michielsen believes the offering, if successful, will enable the company to raise capital to invest in the organization, and to provide an exit strategy for the firm's investors.
Since its founding in 1999, Alien has raised $212 million in eight rounds of funding. Its most recent funding, totaling $66 million, was announced in July 2005 (see Alien Lands $66 Million in Funding). Alien Technologies is one of the largest manufacturers of passive UHF tags and readers for the retail supply chain. Generating capital from stock sales is likely to enable the company to fund future innovations.
Alien has applied to have its stock listed on the Nasdaq market under the symbol "RFID." Bear Stearns & Co. is acting as book-running manager for the offering, with Cowen & Co., Robert W. Baird & Co. and Advanced Equities acting as comanagers.
Apr. 14, 2006—Morgan Hill, Calif., RFID systems provider Alien Technology announced yesterday that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to sell up to $138 million of its common stock, according to an SEC Form S-1 filing. The company has not yet revealed how many shares it will sell, the price of those shares or when the sale will begin.
Erik Michielsen, director of RFID research at ABI Research, says the time is right for Alien to make the offering. "Alien is leading the market for EPC Class 1 Gen 1 RFID tags," he explains, "and has strong adoption among consumer packaged goods companies. Now, before the Gen 2 market becomes too competitive, is the best time for this move."
Michielsen believes the offering, if successful, will enable the company to raise capital to invest in the organization, and to provide an exit strategy for the firm's investors.
Since its founding in 1999, Alien has raised $212 million in eight rounds of funding. Its most recent funding, totaling $66 million, was announced in July 2005 (see Alien Lands $66 Million in Funding). Alien Technologies is one of the largest manufacturers of passive UHF tags and readers for the retail supply chain. Generating capital from stock sales is likely to enable the company to fund future innovations.
Alien has applied to have its stock listed on the Nasdaq market under the symbol "RFID." Bear Stearns & Co. is acting as book-running manager for the offering, with Cowen & Co., Robert W. Baird & Co. and Advanced Equities acting as comanagers.
READERS' COMMENTS
Alien IPO
I sincerely doubt that Alien is the leading provider of Gen 2 tags. What happened to Avery Dennison? Also, since they do not provide chips that are Gen 2 certified nor has Fluidic Self Assembly which does not appear to ever have entered production how do they justify obtaining more money from unsuspecting investors to support and make whole the tremendous amounts of VC monies that have poured in for previous hype cycles?
Posted By: P. Abell 4/14/2006 at 5:54:40 AM
Alien Technology Files for IPO
Apart from the Hype created in the US market place, UHF EPC and ISO18000-6 technologies are failing in the European and Asian markets because of the regulatory enviroment. ( see http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/2243/1/1/ ) I'd strongly advise any investor to look at technology that will and does work in a global enviroment such as iP-x, being considered as a Chinese standard and look at stock recently listed on the TSX under RFD
Posted By: A. Brown 4/16/2006 at 4:49:32 AM