June 7 (Bloomberg) -- Infinera Corp. shares gained 52 percent in their first trading day, the best technology debut of 2007, amid budding orders for the company's high-speed optical- networking gear.

The Sunnyvale, California-based company sold 14 million shares yesterday for $13 each, exceeding the predicted range of $10 to $12, while the number of shares matched Infinera's expectation. Today's gain gives Infinera a market value of about $1.64 billion.

Infinera, trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol ``INFN,'' has won business from telephone companies including Level 3 Communications Inc. and Global Crossing Ltd. by building networking equipment that speeds data transmission at lower cost. Sales surged to $49.2 million in the first quarter from $2.7 million a year earlier.

``They have been pretty successful with fairly large carriers,'' said Shin Umeda, an analyst at Redwood City, California-based Dell'Oro Group, which researches the industry. ``They offer really high capacity at lower prices and the ability to connect customers at many locations across the network.''

The shares climbed $6.71, or 52 percent, to $19.71 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The best previous technology IPO this year was BigBand Networks Inc., which jumped 31 percent on March 15. Hedge fund manager Fortress Investment Group LLC was the top-performing U.S. IPO, climbing 68 percent on Feb. 9.

An additional 2.1 million shares may go to underwriters, raising the offering to as much as $209.3 million.

Infinera's Origins

Founded in 2000 by former Ciena Corp. executive Jagdeep Singh, Infinera was the first company to put optical-networking components on a computer chip. Optical gear relies on light rather than electricity to send data.

``They stayed focused on how to best help the service providers, and it's paying off,'' said Stephane Teral, an analyst at Campbell, California-based Infonetics Research, who focuses on telecommunications. ``There is a need for these products.''

Level 3 and its Broadwing Corp. unit accounted for 57 percent of revenue in the first quarter. Other customers include Integra Telecom Inc., a provider of voice and data services to western U.S. states, and London-based Interoute Communications, which operates a European fiber-optic network spanning 22 countries.

Infinera competes with Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent, the world's biggest maker of telecommunications gear, as well as Munich-based Siemens AG and Nortel Networks Corp., located in Toronto.

New Markets

Last year Infinera had 9 percent of the so-called long-haul market, which grew 9 percent to $1.56 billion, according to Eve Griliches, an analyst at Framingham, Massachusetts-based research firm IDC. Umeda expects the market to grow more than 10 percent this year and then slow over the next two years. That means Infinera will need to take market share and expand into new businesses to maintain growth.

``Over the long term, they probably have to make some changes to the product line,'' Umeda said.

A newer area for Infinera is the metro network market, which covers cities rather than long distances. Infinera was selected last month by Internet service provider Telekenex Inc. to help provide high-speed service to small and mid-size businesses in the San Francisco area.

A range of computer-networking companies have gone public in the past nine months, following a five-year drought.

Earlier IPOs

Riverbed Technology Inc. shares have quadrupled since the maker of equipment that connects computers in wide-area networks first sold stock in September. Shares of BigBand, which makes gear that sends high-speed video over the Web, have gained 27 percent since their March debut. Starent Networks Corp., a wireless equipment maker, climbed 17 percent in its first day of trading yesterday.

Infinera's IPO was managed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Thomas Weisel Partners Group Inc. The company is backed by venture firms Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Mobius Venture Capital Inc.

Technology firms backed by venture capitalists raised $701 million in seven IPOs last quarter, equaling the third period of 2004 as the busiest since 2000, according to Dow Jones VentureOne, which does research on the industry.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Levy in San Francisco at alevy5@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 7, 2007 16:19 EDT