Eloqua's pending NASDAQ IPO a secret Toronto success story

It has been seven years since anyone publicly referred to software co. Eloqua as a “Toronto-based” tech company. Last Friday, Fortune’s Dan Primack let the world know that Eloqua’s planned NASDAQ IPO was ready to market and price, with 8 million shares being offered at $9.50-$11.50 per. (7 million from treasury and 1 million from some existing shareholders.)

Today, Eloqua’s HQ is in Virginia, and its key backers are three high profile U.S. VCs we’re fond of: Bay Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and JMI Equity. On-demand management software is a great space, and the future looks fabulous for Eloqua; thus the attractive IPO valuation. There’s still a Toronto office, to go along with UK, Germany, Brussels and Singapore. That’s the nature of the beast.

Should the deal succeed, this counts as a Canadian tech story IPO-ing on the NASDAQ national market in my books. The VCs aren’t local, but so what. Capital was attracted, clients were served, wealth was created, and no one had to sell out to a strategic to get a lift. Whether or not Canadian PMs would have bought the deal as a TSX IPO we’ll never know (see prior post “Belair / Ericsson deal a wake-up call for every Institutional Sales Desk” Feb 22-12); and it remains to be seen how a relatively small cap deal plays in the current environment.

Virgina’s not just south of the 49th parallel, it’s even past the Mason-Dixon Line. But that’s no reason for Toronto’s entrepreneurs and VCs to not celebrate Eloqua, and what’s been accomplished to date.

It can be done!

MRM