IPO Filing: Monotype Imaging, One To Watch

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 26, 1:55PM EST

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Monotype Imaging Solutions has filed to come public via an IPO under the NASDAQ ticker "TYPE." Monotype has filed to sell up to $135 million in shares of common stock with Banc of America as the lead underwriter as of now; and syndicate members include Jefferies, William Blair, Needham, and Canaccord Adams.

Here is how the company describes itself: We are a leading global provider of text imaging solutions. Our technologies and fonts enable the display and printing of high quality digital text. Our software technologies have been widely deployed across and embedded in a range of consumer electronic, or CE, devices, including laser printers, digital copiers, mobile phones, digital televisions, set-top boxes and digital cameras, as well as in numerous software applications and operating systems. We also license our typefaces to creative and business professionals through custom font design services, direct sales and our e-commerce websites fonts.com, itcfonts.com, linotype.com and faces.co.uk, which attracted more than 20 million visits in 2006 from over 200 countries. Here is its customer base listed: Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, Pioneer, JVC, Cisco, Sony, Sanyo, H-P, Kyocera Mita, Canon, Microsoft, Apple, Symbian, Qualcomm, Palmsource, Agilent, British Air, and Barclays.

For the 9-months ended September 30, 2006 it posted revenues of $60.756 million and net income is $3.8 million after a provision for income taxes of just over $2.92 million (otherwise income would have been $7.743 million). The company is based in Woburn, Massachusetts and it is the result of an acquisition.

This is one that doesn’t sound all that exciting on the surface in the description, but in reality it looks like it may be a great operation for several reasons: 1) a solid business that is 2) already entrenched with a large base of solid customers 3) in a segment that may have at least some barriers to entry 4) because of the times required to develop relationships with such large players; 5) and also operates in 6 global operating subsidiaries: US-based are Monotype Imaging and International Typeface; EU-based is Monotype Imaging Ltd. and Linotype GmbH; ASIA-based Monotype Imaging KK (Japan) and China Type Design Limited (China)….. 6) Based on the diversity already listed, it sounds like they already effictively have their insurance policy against "Chindia Outsourcing Business Risks" in place. This sounds like one to put on your radar screens.

More details on the company can be found at the company’s website.

Jon C. Ogg
January 26, 2007

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.