Pivotal Software Plans to Go Public -- WSJ

By Aisha Al-Muslim 

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (March 24, 2018).

Cloud software-services company Pivotal Software Inc., a spinoff of EMC Corp. and VMware Inc., plans to go public.

Pivotal filed preliminary documents for an initial public offering, Securities and Exchange Commission records show. The company's filing Friday with the SEC lists an amount of $100 million, but that is a placeholder figure likely to change.

Pivotal didn't disclose where its shares would list or under what ticker symbol it would trade. It also didn't list an initial public offering price, the filing shows.

The company had revenue of $509.4 million in fiscal 2018, which ended Feb. 2, compared with $280.9 million in fiscal 2016 and $416.3 million in fiscal 2017. Fiscal 2018 was the first year in which subscription revenue exceeded its services revenue, but the company expects that subscription revenue will become a larger percentage of its total revenue over time, it said in the filing.

The company posted a $163.5 million net loss in fiscal 2018, narrower than the $282.7 million it recorded in fiscal 2016 and the $232.9 million in fiscal 2017.

Pivotal plans to use the IPO proceeds to increase its financial flexibility and for working capital, investments and other general purposes. It also wants to create a public market for its stock and facilitate its future access to the public equity markets. It may also use a portion of the proceeds for investments in or acquisitions of businesses, technologies or other assets.

Dell Technologies Inc. is currently Pivotal's majority stockholder. Dell was taken private in 2013 by its founder, Michael Dell, and investment firm Silver Lake. Both Mr. Dell and Silver Lake hold stakes in Pivotal through Dell, the SEC filing shows. As of Feb. 2, Pivotal had more than 2,518 full-time employees.

In January, The Wall Street Journal reported that Dell is considering a range of strategic alternatives that could transform the maker of PCs and data-storage devices, according to people familiar with the matter.

The closely held technology giant is expected to explore options including an IPO and a purchase of the rest of VMware, a publicly traded cloud-infrastructure company, the people said.

In 2016, Dell bought data-storage company EMC for $67 billion in the largest technology takeover ever. When Dell bought EMC, EMC owned 80% of VMware. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., VMware produces software related to databases, storage and the Internet of Things.

Write to Aisha Al-Muslim at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 24, 2018 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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