Metastorm plans initial public offering

The Baltimore-based company said IPO proceeds could total $86.3 million, but this figure was estimated solely to calculate the registration fee and may change.

Metastorm plans to use proceeds from the offering to expand its sales and marketing and research and development capabilities; for capital expenditures, general corporate purposes and working capital; and to fund possible acquisitions.

Metastorm provides business process management software, known as Metastorm Enterprise. As of Dec. 31, the company had about 1,150 customers in 37 countries across a wide range of industries, including financial services, health care, manufacturing and retail. Metastorm said it competes with several large software vendors, including International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and SAP AG, as well as specialized, privately held companies.

Robert J. Farrell serves as chairman, president and chief executive. Before joining Metastorm in 2002, Farrell served as president of the Americas for Mercator Software.

For the year ended Dec. 31, Metastorm reported income of $586,000, compared with a loss of $660,000 in the prior year. Revenue increased to $59.7 million from $42.1 million in 2006.

Jefferies & Co. and Oppenheimer & Co. are serving as lead underwriters. Needham & Co., JMP Securities and Craig-Hallum Capital Group are also underwriting the offering.

The company has applied to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol "MSTM."