Pure Storage hints at IPO as it pours more scorn on EMC

Storage startup claims IPO could happen "at any time" and that EMC legal battles are a PR win

Bullish storage startup Pure Storage has said its intital public offering (IPO) plans could be ready to go "at any time" as it turned up the heat on its war of words with rival EMC.

A year ago, all-flash vendor Pure burst onto the UK scene in an effort to sign up a flurry of resellers, and since then it has scored 40 across Europe - around 24 of which are UK-based, such as Softcat.

On top of this, it has also inked deals with disties Exlusive Networks and Commtech in an effort to broaden its reach. It sells 100 per cent through its channel partners and said in the UK about half of its deals are partner led.

Over the last year, the US-based firm has ignited a war of words with storage giant EMC. On the latter's latest XtremIO product launch, Pure claimed it has copied its own technology, and in another case, EMC filed a lawsuit against a former staff member it claims defected to Pure and illegally took over secret info.

But the impending legal action has done little to ruffle the feathers of Pure's chief executive Scott Dietzen who said, if anything, the publicity it has gained has been more than worth the legal hassle.

"There's been a PR upside," he said. "There have been customers who have come to us and said ‘you're the ones making [EMC] nervous; there must be something you're up to and we'd like to learn more'.

"For customers with two strong companies competing for their business, it helps them get the best deal and increases the likelihood they will invite us to the party, which is where we want to be."

He added that he is "supremely confident" that Pure will be exonerated in its current legal battle and that its investors are not particularly concerned about the process.

"When you have this much success at disrupting an incumbent, it's something that will happen," he said.

Back in August last year, Pure secured $150m in Series E funding, and since then rumours of the firm's imminent IPO have been in full swing.

Dietzen said news of it floating could come "at any time."

"We have a CFO search underway," he said. "So until you see a CFO up on our website, the IPO won't be committed till that... We could IPO at any time."

Dietzen added he has batted off advances from around half a dozen firms looking to buy Pure Storage and said selling up is not on the firm's agenda.

"The thinking of our board of directors and our management team is M&A [mergers and acquisitions] is a consolation prize if you mess something up. So far things are working really well," he said.