It looks like we were a tad previous at the end of last year in describing Matlock-based Ideagen, the self-styled 'leading supplier of On-Demand Information and Compliance Solutions', as having recently listed on AIM (see UK Ideagen acquires Proquis – and a hefty US contract) as that momentous event only happened today. Just under 40% of the stock will be in public hands.
Ideagen was founded in 1993 as an enterprise content management consultancy and floated on the fledgling UK market, PLUS (as Datum International) in 2005. Ideagen became a plc in 2010. It’s still tiny – revenues last year (to 30th April 2011) were £2.3m, but the company is profitable, with an 11.7% operating margin. Ideagen has so far made three acquisitions.
Ideagen provides its products both on premise and on a SaaS basis. But it’s a minnow swimming with whales, including the likes of Open Text, Stellent and Autonomy. Nonetheless, congrats to the management team – and jolly good luck!
This is the second UK SITS IPO this year, following just a month behind that of Sheffield/Silicon Valley-based WANdisco (see WANdisco steps out onto the AIM dancefloor), the (also self-styled) ‘leading provider of global collaboration software’. WANdisco’s shares have risen nearly 20% since listing.