2012 turned out to be a very good year for investors who bet on new enterprise-tech companies.
This year, companies such as Splunk, Palo Alto Networks, and Workday had extremely successful opening days in spite of the Facebook IPO fiasco—or maybe because of it, as investors veered away from consumer Web plays.
ServiceNow, for instance, was one of the first technology companies to go public after Facebook. It even had the same banker, Morgan Stanley. But its debut couldn't have been more different: It popped big on Day One, soaring nearly 37 percent.
How have these tech darlings done since their first day? We looked at 11 stocks and found they were collectively up by 28% over their initial prices. Four of them have market caps well over $2 billion.
This is an encouraging sign for the enterprise market in 2013.
Epam Systems (EPAM): Sitting pretty with mobile apps
Date of IPO: February 8
IPO price: $12
Shares offered: 6 million
Epam helps enterprises outsource mobile- and cloud-app development to consultants, mostly from Central and Eastern Europe. It grew up serving software developers, but now every businesses needs custom apps, putting Epam in a prime position.
Brightcove (BCOV): Still betting on HTML5
Date of IPO: February 17
IPO price: $11
Shares offered: 5 million
Brightcove is like a YouTube for businesses, letting them host video in customized players. It also makes tools for mobile-app development. Its shares soared on opening day, but it was later hurt when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talked trash about a key Web technology Brightcove favors for mobile apps known as HTML5. In June, Brightcove introduced a new HTML5 platform for mobile apps.
Demandware (DWRE): Buying the e-commerce trend
Date of IPO: March 15
IPO price: $16
Shares offered: 5.5 million
Demandware's cloud service hosts e-commerce sites. Its IPO popped on Day One, riding the wave of pre-Facebook IPO excitement, when Wall Street was eager for tech stocks. Its founder, Stephan Schambach, had previously started Intershop, another successful e-commerce company.
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