Workday Commands IPO Premium With Web Challenge to Oracle
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Workday Inc., a maker of Web-based payroll and human resources programs, is betting it deserves a higher valuation than all other business software providers to hit the public markets in the past year.
The company plans to raise as much as $591.5 million in its initial public offering today. The middle of the $24 to $26 price range values Workday at $4 billion, about 20 times sales in the past four quarters. That’s a richer valuation than any of the 13 U.S. business software companies to go public since late 2011 had at their IPO, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.