Online auction company IronPlanet Inc. is going public after little more than 10 years in the e-business. According to registration papers filed on March 18 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Pleasanton, Calif.-based used-equipment marketplace seeks to use an initial public offering to raise up to $92 million to reinvest in the Internet auction site or “to acquire or invest in businesses, products or technologies that are complementary to our own.” It plans to list on NASDAQ under the stock symbol “IRON.”
Last year, IronPlanet booked revenue of $54.6 million, a 56% increase over 2008. The $246-billion global heavy-equipment market is expected to increase by about 28% by 2013, according to industry data contained in the filing. The average value of the worldwide fleet of used heavy equipment is estimated to be more than $500 billion, of which over $100 billion is resold annually.