Think IPO investors are mostly focused on the numbers? Probably … but wordplay might be just as important.
Take the recent hot deal from Rocket Fuel (FUEL), which is up around 110% despite the fact that other companies in its sector, like Tremor Video (TRMR) and YuMe (YUME), were duds at the time.
As I noted a few weeks before the deal hit the market, the Rocket Fuel S-1 downplayed the ad-tech angle. Instead, the focus was on how the company was a leader in Big Data — a sector that has seen standout IPOs from Splunk (SPLK) and Tableau Software (DATA).
Mission accomplished. From the Wall Street Journal:
“[The CEO] said that talking about Rocket Fuel’s big data use ‘really helped’ with general tech investors on the road show. ‘A lot of people were talking about big data, and a lot of them wanted to know more about the [artificial intelligence] business on top of it,’ he said.”
So just remember: The sales pitch counts. And never ignore the S-1.
Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPO Playbook. He is also the author of High-Profit IPO Strategies, All About Commodities and All About Short Selling. Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.