Petaluma's Calix Networks hopes to raise $43 to $53 million in an initial public offering later this year, according to a new filing with securities regulators.
Calix will sell 6.3 million shares at an estimated price of $12 each. About 2.1 million of those shares will be sold by private stockholders at Calix, and the company won't receive the proceeds.
The proposed share price values Calix at about $439 million, a far cry from the $7.3 billion that Cisco Systems paid for the last company run by Calix CEO Carl Russo, Petaluma's Cerent Corp.
It shows how far Telecom Valley companies' fortunes have fallen since the high-tech bubble burst a decade ago, said Mark Lutkowitz of Telecom Pragmatics, a Nashville-based consulting firm.
"I think it's a brutally realistic number," he said. "I would bet it's a little disappointing for Calix."
Calix spokesman Geoff Burke declined to comment Wednesday, citing the "quiet period" leading up to an initial public offering.
The IPO terms were outlined last week in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Calix, which makes broadband access equipment for telephone and cable providers, said in November it would try to raise $100 million in Sonoma County's first IPO in three years. The company said it would use the funds for research and development, sales and marketing, repayment of loans and possible acquisitions.
Calix was founded in 1999 and has about 400 employees. It has raised more than $200 million in venture capital over the past 10 years.
The Petaluma company's revenues grew from $134 million in 2005 to $233 million last year, as telephone and cable companies upgraded their broadband networks.
But Calix has yet to make a profit, losing $22 million last year, according to regulatory filings.
Still, Calix stands to benefit from the federal government's $7.2 billion broadband stimulus program, which provides grants and loans for rural phone companies to extend their networks.
Calix already serves about 40 percent of rural service providers.
The company has about 500 telecom customers serving 32 million telephone and cable subscribers, mostly in the U.S. and Canada.
No date has been set for the initial stock offering, the first for a Sonoma County company since Petaluma's Oculus Innovative Sciences went public in January 2007.
The sale's underwriters are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Jefferies & Co. and UBS Investment Bank.
Under terms of Calix's stock offering, the underwriters have the option to purchase almost 950,000 shares at a discount to the offering price.
Calix plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "CALX."
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