Submitted by Fox First at Ten on October 9th
NEW YORK (AP) - Workday Inc. said Tuesday that it now expects shares of its planned initial public stock offering to price at $24 to $26 each, up from its previously projected range of $21 to $24 per share.
That suggests that there is heavy demand for the IPO.
If the stock prices at $25, the human resources software company would raise nearly $569 million and have a market value of $4.01 billion.
Workday, which is based in Pleasanton, Calif., plans to sell 22.8 million shares.
Underwriters may buy an additional 3.4 million shares to sell to the public if there's demand for the stock.
Without the extra shares, Workday expects proceeds of $525.6 million after expenses, which it intends to use for general business expenses. The company specializes in software that helps companies manage their personnel departments. It provides its software from data centers that distribute programs to any device with an Internet connection. The delivery mechanism has become known as "cloud computing," a rapidly growing field that has become a hot commodity on Wall Street.
Like many other technology companies that have recently gone public, Workday will have two classes of stock. It is selling Class A shares in the IPO, which entitle each buyer to one voting right, while each Class B share is entitled to 10 voting rights. After the offering is complete, Class B shareholders will hold 98 percent of the voting power, and the company's co-founders and co-CEOs David Duffield and Aneel Bhusri will control two-thirds, according to the company's filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Workday plans to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "WDAY."
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