EqualLogic Makes Intentions Public

EqualLogic is the latest storage vendor to seek its fortune in the public markets, filing plans for a $125 million IPO with the SEC late last week.

The company is considered the top private iSCSI storage vendor, and its triple-digit growth rate since 2004 seems to support that claim.

EqualLogic had sales of $10.4 million in 2004, $30 million in 2005, and $68.1 million in 2006, while its losses were $12.1 million, $9.4 million and $500,000 over the same period. In the first three months of 2007, the company took in $23.8 million in revenue, while its net loss crept up to $1.2 million.

As of March 31, the company had $12.5 million in cash.

EqualLogic boasts more than 2,500 customers in 30 countries, as its ability to build easy-to-use IP SANs has caught on with customers seeking an alternative to Fibre Channel SANs.

iSCSI commands just a 3 percent share of the external disk storage systems market, but IDC expects the technology to command a 21 percent share by 2010, giving IP storage — and EqualLogic — strong growth potential. IDC expects the iSCSI market to hit $6 billion by 2011, up from $600 million in 2006. EMC, Network Appliance and EqualLogic are the top three players in the market, according to both IDC and Gartner.

EqualLogic plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol EQLX. Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse are managing the offering.

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