BroadSoft Goes IPO

Well, the big day has finally come for BroadSoft, a company I've been close to for about as long as I've been following telecom. It's a long road to IPO, and a lot of things have to go right, not just on opening, but after all the hoopla dies down.

I've been too heads-down today to jump on this, and a hat tip to Larry Lisser who IM'd me earlier to say the stock opened today at $9. That's at the low end of the expected range of $9-$11, and last I checked it has traded today as low as $7.83, and is now around $8.40. I'm not a financial analyst and don't really follow stocks on an intraday basis, so I'll leave it at that.

The bigger picture is the news that they've gone public, so congrats to Mike Tessler and his loyal team for getting this done. If you follow my blog, you'll know that BroadSoft has been doing a lot of things right for a while now, and they earned their stripes. Of course, being a public company brings a whole new set of pressures, and it remains to be seen if the profits are there to keep the markets happy.

For lack of a better word, VoIP IPOs have not fared well, so BroadSoft has its work cut out. In recent times, the likes of Vonage, Veraz and even Mitel do not bode well. However, when you look at Acme Packet, things are a bit brighter. Like Acme, BroadSoft is very strong in their space - not quite as dominant, but strong enough that their market position can sustain long term success and profitability. Acme's stock price did languish for some time, but it's very hot right now, so when the market catches up to how well you're doing, good things can happen. There's no reason why BroadSoft can't turn out the same way, and at the very least, it's a good day to be in VoIP - or whatever you choose to call the business BroadSoft is in!