LogMeIn shares jump in first day of trading
In its first day as a publicly traded company, LogMeIn Inc.’s shares climbed more than 26 percent from their opening-day price. The Woburn-based maker of software that lets users remotely control their computers sold 6.7 million shares at $16 in an offering backed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Barclays Capital.
The stock opened at $20 yesterday on the Nasdaq stock exchange, falling as low as $19.51 and rising as high as $20.98 before closing at $20.02; about 7.5 million company shares changed hands.
LogMeIn was only the sixth venture-capital-backed company to go public so far this year, and the first in Massachusetts, according to Emily Mendell, vice president of strategic affairs for the National Venture Capital Association in Arlington, Va. All six have traded above their initial price, suggesting a gradual improvement in the IPO market.
But Mendell said there only 10 other venture-backed companies in the pipeline to issue stock this year. “There’s still a very low number of companies in a position to go public right now,’’ she said. “Over the last year, the market has been so abysmal that most venture-backed companies have waited to enter or have been acquired.’’
Mendell said the companies that have gone public so far this year had a median age of 10.6 years, compared to 8.7 years in 2007.
Still, John Fitzgibbon, founder of IPOScoop.com in Edison, N.J., said the stock market’s upturn and signs that the recession may be easing could bring a surge in IPOs later this year. He said that there were just 10 initial offerings in the first half of 2003, when the economy was climbing out of recession. In the second half of the year, there were 74. “I do see a very strong parallel between 2009 and 2003,’’ Fitzgibbon said.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com. 
