Jive Software Opens Up 27% on Debut

Jive story updated with CEO comments

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Jive Software (JIVE) shot up 27% to $15.12 Tuesday during the business software company's first day of trading on the Nasdaq as strong investor interest in the social media sector continues.

Jive Software, which offers Facebook-like social networks for businesses, priced shares at $12 a piece in its IPO, which was above its expected range of $8 to $10 a share. Jive raised $161.3 million through the offering.

For the six months ended June 30, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Jive reported a loss of $30.6 million on revenue of $34 million, which compares to a loss of $13.3 million on revenue of $19.2 million in the same period a year earlier, according to its S-1 filing in late August.

Customers include Brocade (BRCD), NetApp (NTAP) and Pearson (PSO).

Jive is one of 11 IPOs this week as companies look to get out before the market shuts down until January. Other IPOs include social gaming company Zynga and high-end fashion brand Michael Kors.

These companies are coming to market in a turbulent time for IPOs. Last week, five companies withdrew or postponed their offerings, according to Renaissance Securities.

"Everybody is watching [us]," Jive CEO Tony Zingale said in an interview. "We were told you have to be a very high quality company to get out in this environment."

Zingale said he is not concerned with pitfalls that have plagued other recent tech offerings, including Pandora (P) and LinkedIn (LNKD) whose shares have slipped following recent IPOs.

Pandora is down nearly 40% this year while LinkedIn shares have fallen 27%.

"We're not a consumer company, we're an enterprise company," he said. "We do take advantage of the 'social halo' but we're not about eyeballs and won't be subject to the massive volatility those companies have experienced."

Shares of Jive were trading at $15.25 in early afternoon trading on Tuesday.

--Written by Olivia Oran in New York.



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