Wozniak's Fusion-io Preps for IPO

SALT LAKE CITY (TheStreet) -- Fusion-io, the storage start-up that boasts Apple(AAPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak on its management team, is the latest tech firm prepping to take the public plunge.

The company announced Wednesday that it has filed its S-1 with the SEC for a proposed IPO. Goldman Sachs(GS) and Morgan Stanley(MS) are acting as lead book runners for the offering. The number of shares to be offered and the price range have not yet been determined.

Fusion-io, which boasts Steve Wozniak as its chief scientist, has filed its S-1

Wozniak joined Fusion-io as chief scientist in 2009, and has since been a vocal champion of the firm's solid state disk (SSD) technology.

SSDs, which offers faster data-access speeds than traditional hard disk drives, have been gaining momentum in recent years, with companies such as EMC(EMC) and IBM(IBM) pushing the technology.

Fusion-io recently strengthened its partnership with IBM, which uses the startup's ioMemory product within its System x server family.

Because its technology contains fewer moving parts than hard disk drives, Fusion-io says the power and cooling costs of its SSDs are a fraction of the cost of traditional storage. This message seems to be getting through. In addition to IBM, the startup also counts HP(HPQ) and Dell(DELL) as OEM partners.

The Utah firm has received more than $111 million in three funding rounds. Dell CEO Michael Dell, Samsung and Andreesen Horowitz, the venture capital firm set up by Netscape co-founder Mark Andreesen, are among the company's backers.

There have been signs that the tech IPO market is heating up, as evidenced by the recent filings from LinkedIn and Pandora. Internet calling service Skype is also set to take the public plunge after filing its S-1 last year, although the company has not yet revealed its share count and price range.

Scott Sweet, a senior managing partner at IPO advisory firm IPO Boutique, recently told TheStreet that the number of public offerings in the tech sector is estimated to double this year. Last year, 42 tech companies priced.

--Written by James Rogers in New York.

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