Two IPOs, 10 Years and a World Apart

Ruckus' prospects are improving. The company broke even in the third quarter and expects to post a small profit in the fourth. The compound annual growth rate from 2005 to 2008 was 90%, and revenue tripled to $32 million in fiscal 2008. Third-quarter revenue and orders doubled from a year earlier. Following a recent round of venture funding, the company's capitalization is about $51 million.

Lo declines to say whether the company has a target date for an IPO but is determined it will happen.

"You can't build a company thinking you're going to get bought," she says. "If you do that, you become short-sighted, and what if you don't get bought? If someone comes along with an offer you can't refuse, you consider it, but it never crossed my mind to start a company that wouldn't go public."

-- Reported by Carmen Nobel in Boston.

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