Summary
- A technology company on a mission to automate the buying and selling of advertising.
- RUBI’s Advertising Automation Cloud features applications for digital advertising sellers.
- Compare with Rocket Fuel (FUEL).
Rubicon Project CEO Frank Addante, right, and Chief Operating Officer/CFO Todd Tappin are all smiles after ringing the opening bell at the NYSE on Wednesday.
Rubicon stock closed at 20.09 after rising as high as 21.20, up 41%. It opened up 17% at 17.50 at 9:59 a.m. ET on the New York Stock Exchange, according to data from IPO Boutique.
Rubicon late Tuesday priced at 15, the low end of its expected range of 15 to 17. The company sold 5.4 million shares, raising $81 million. Insider shareholders sold another 1.4 million shares for $21 million, the company said.
"We're about building value for our shareholders over the long term, and that's our focus," said CFO and Chief Operating Officer Todd Tappin, who rang Wednesday's opening bell.
Addante and Tappin have helped take companies public before — Tappin as CFO of paid-search company Overture and Addante as chief technology officer of online ad company L90. Those companies both listed on the Nasdaq exchange. Rubicon opted for the NYSE because many of its clients list there, so Rubicon executives saw it as a way to "be alongside them," Tappin said.
Google Competitor
Founded in 2007, Rubicon has developed a technology platform that clients use to automate their ad buying. As an ad platform, it at times competes with Google, Addante says, but he points out the two also partner on some advertising.
Rubicon works with more than 700 website publishers — including major media companies such as Dow Jones and Tribune Co. — connecting them with companies that advertise more than 100,000 brands.
Rubicon is able to connect its ad-buyer clients to 97% of all Internet users via its exchange, the company said in regulatory filings.
The Los Angeles-based company reported 2013 revenue of $83.8 million, up 47%, but its net loss doubled to $13.5 million.
Rubicon rival Rocket Fuel (FUEL) priced its IPO last September at 29 and closed its first day at 56.10. But that stock has since fallen. It closed Wednesday at 40.99, down 3.5%.
Rubicon was able to price only at the low end of its expected range, perhaps because of the pallid performance of Rocket Fuel's stock, Gaskins says.
"If you look at the December quarter, RUBI has a better price-to-loss ratio than FUEL, and it's got good top-line growth," Gaskins said. "But I think the people who own Rocket Fuel will want to play the whole segment, and they're buying Rubicon too."
Rubicon underwriters have an option to buy an additional 1 million shares within 30 days, which could raise another $15 million.
Description
The Rubicon Project, Inc. is a global technology company that focuses to automate the buying and selling of advertising. The Company’s Advertising Automation Cloud is a scalable software platform that powers and optimizes a marketplace for the real time trading of digital advertising between buyers and sellers. Its advertising automation cloud features applications for digital advertising sellers, including Websites, applications and other digital media properties, to sell their advertising inventory; applications for buyers, including demand side platforms (DSPs), ad networks and advertising agencies, to buy advertising inventory, and an exchange over which such transactions are executed. Its advertising automation cloud incorporates machine-learning algorithms, data processing, high volume storage, detailed analytics capabilities, and a distributed infrastructure.
Address
12181 BLUFF CREEK DRIVE, 4TH F
LOS ANGELES, CA 90094
United States
LOS ANGELES, CA 90094
United States
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