Limelight Networks' IPO Drives CDN Enthusiasm, Akamai Shares Gain 8% - Seeking Alpha

"It's been a while since we've seen conspicuous first-day pops in the share prices of IPOs. Limelight Networks (LLNW) had all the marks of a hot IPO: the pricing was raised from $12 to $14 the day prior to trading, and again to $15 when the shares hit the market. Once LLNW began trading, it shot as high as $24.33 before closing at $22.18, up 48 percent on the session.



Limelight's strong debut came a day after shares of optical networking firm Infinera Corp. (INFN) jumped 52 percent in its NASDAQ trading debut, which prevented LLNW from being the strongest first-day gain of a tech IPO this year. Limelight raised $240 million in its IPO, selling 16 million shares (12.5 million offered by the company, and 3.5 million by shareholders) for $15 each. Limelight, which operates a content delivery network [CDN] for bandwidth-intensive files and applications, will net $170 million of the proceeds. It will use the money to fund capital spending and pay off $23.8 million in debt."