IPOs underway for Jive and Angie’s List

A further two tech companies have filed for IPOs in the United States, following the likes of LinkedIn and Groupon, suggesting that the dotcom bubble is continuing to grow.

Social enterprise giant Jive Software announced a $100 million IPO filing last week week, while business reviews site Angie’s List will raise up to $75 million from its filing.

The companies, both of which are based in the US, follow in the footsteps of LinkedIn, Groupon and Zynga, all of which have filed for IPOs in recent months.

The surge in IPO activity has sparked claims of another dotcom boom, particularly in light of the companies’ sky-high valuations – Zynga intends to raise up to $US1 billion.

Earlier in the year, Telsyte research director Foad Fadaghi told StartupSmart the market is “certainly showing signs of bubble behaviour”.

But now Fadaghi isn’t convinced the market is heading towards another boom, saying he doesn’t believe the latest IPOs form part of a continuing trend.

“If we saw 15 in one day, then maybe,” he says.

Jive was founded in 2001 and now has offices in the US, the United Kingdom and Germany. The company will raise as much as $100 million in its initial public offering.

Jive’s software combines computing with social collaboration to offer social networks to businesses. Its suite of applications enables businesses to hold discussions, share documents and run polls.

As of June 30 this year, the company had 635 enterprise customers including Hewlett-Packard, with more than 15 million users.

Jive says that it plans to use the proceeds of the offering to pay down outstanding loans and towards general corporate purposes, including working capital and potential acquisitions.

In terms of investment, Jive has raised a total of $57 million. The company’s largest investor, Sequoia Capital, owns over a third of Jive while Kleiner Perkins owns 14.24%.

Angie’s List, meanwhile, was founded in 1995 by Bill Oesterle and Angie Hicks. The site offers consumers a way to review and rate doctors, contractors and service-based businesses.

To date, Angie’s List has raised nearly $100 million from investors including Battery Ventures, City Investment Group and Cardinal Ventures.

The company has grown the number of paid memberships to 820,000 – largely as a result of an aggressive marketing campaign – and the site has collected more than two million reviews.

In the six months ended June 30, the company’s revenue was $38.6 million.