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Hosted CRM vendor RightNow Technologies (Nasdaq: RNOW) announced Monday that it has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) to sell US$60 million of its common stock with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The number of shares the company plans to offer and the price range for the offering are still to be determined. RightNow CEO and founder Greg Gianforte told CRM Buyer that SEC regulations prevent the company from discussing the announcement.
In a prepared statement, RightNow said Morgan Stanley will act as lead underwriter of the IPO, with Thomas Weisel Partners acting as co-lead manager. In addition, Adams, Harkness & Hill and D.A. Davidson & Co. will serve as co-managers for the offering.
Second Time Around
This is the second time the company, founded in 1997, has filed for an IPO. RightNow first filed back in April 2000, but withdrew the offering later that year amid the dot-com bust.
CRM industry analyst Denis Pombriant noted that RightNow is better positioned to file an IPO than it was four years ago, adding that the company has done its homework during the interim.
"RightNow has done a good job of managing and growing the company over the past few years," Pombriant told CRM Buyer. "They've developed solid products that have helped them sell to their installed base and the market at large."
In addition, RightNow has posted real revenues and demonstrated solid growth, according to Pombriant. "It's just a better time," he said.
The Right(Now) Choice
Although RightNow offers customers a choice between hosted and "host-less" solutions, 95 percent of its new customers opt for the hosted version, Gianforte said.
Last month, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities chose RightNow as the strategic service management application for all of its 32 community and technical colleges and 53 campuses.
In that rollout, RightNow replaced Computer Associates' Unicenter Service Desk [See Mathew Schwartz, "Minnesota Universities Opt for On-Demand CRM," CRM Buyer, April 27, 2004].
CRG Partnership
In January, the company announced a partnership with international research and consulting firm The Customer Respect Group (CRG). The agreement offers customized CRG research and services to help organizations optimize their customers' online experiences.
In addition to its corporate headquarters in Bozeman, Montana, RightNow has offices in Dallas, San Mateo, New Jersey, London and Sydney, with an associated office in Tokyo. Its products are available in 13 languages worldwide.
The company reported revenue of approximately $36 million during the 2003 fiscal year and is the second largest on-demand CRM company in the world behind salesforce.com.
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