A Peek Into Newly Public Qualys

A Gartner report, Market Trends: Cloud-Based Security Services Market, Worldwide, 2012, estimates that the cloud-based security market will be worth $4.2 billion by 2016. Researcher IDC is more optimistic: One of its reports on cloud security–based solutions estimates a compounded growth rate of 16% over the period 2011 to 2015, projecting that the market will grow from $5.1 billion in 2011 to $9.3 billion in 2015.

Qualys’s IPO
After having filed its S-1 in June this year, Qualys, one of the leading providers of cloud security and compliance solutions, recently went public. Qualys’s offerings help identify security risks to enterprise IT infrastructures, protect IT systems, and applications from cyber attacks and achieve compliance with internal policies and external regulations. The company is best known for its QualysGuard Cloud Platform, which is an integrated cloud platform that offers a suite of solutions that automates the life cycle of asset discovery, security assessments, and compliance management.

Qualys earns revenues from these customers by levying a renewable annual subscription. Today its QualysGuard Cloud Platform is deployed in over 5,700 organizations spread over more than 100 countries. Its customers include a majority of the Forbes Global 100 and Fortune 100. Revenues grew from $57.4 million in 2009 to $65.4 million in 2010 to $76.2 million in 2011. For the quarter ended March, the most recent available, revenues grew from $17.7 million a year ago to $21.2 million for the quarter. The company reported earnings of $0.9 million in 2009, $0.4 million in 2010 and $2.0 million in 2011. However, for the March quarter, it reported a net loss of $0.3 million this year, compared will a net income of $1.0 million reported a year ago. The depressed earnings were attributed to an increase in sales, marketing, and research and development spending.

Qualys’s Product Expansion
To continue to capture a bigger market, Qualys is expanding its product offerings. Recently, it announced the launch of an expanded QualysGuard PCI that will assist organizations to meet Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security standards. The solution includes workflows for risk ranking and reporting on internal vulnerabilities that will help merchants meet the requirements for PCI compliance. The solution is expected to be helpful for smaller merchants that have a tougher time dealing with PCI DSS compliance required to ensure that sensitive payment card information is protected.

Last month, Qualys went public on the Nasdaq and sold nearly 7.6 million shares for $90.9 million and a valuation of $451.5 million. The stock is now trading at $13.68 after having reached a high of $15.25 soon after listing. Qualys had priced shares at $12.00 each.