Rackspace prepares for IPO

Rackspace was taken private in 2016

Rackspace has confirmed plans IPO after filing paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a statement the firm said it was preparing to list on the NASDAQ market, four years after being taken private in by Apollo Global Management in a $4.3bn deal.

Rackspace has since shifted its focus from being a traditional hosting provider to a managed service provider of public cloud. Rumours of a potential IPO first surfaced in 2018.

The firm said that it would list under the ticker symbol "RXT". The price of its shares has not yet been determined, it added.

The SEC filing showed that revenue in its last full financial year, ending 31 December 2019, was $2,4bn, down 14 per cent on the previous year.

Gross profit was just over $1bn and up slightly on the previous year.

Rackspace refers to the channel throughout the filing, claiming that partners are an important part of its sales strategy.

It claimed to have a network of "3,000 channel and technology partners".

"Our channel partners, including management and technical consultancies, technology integrators, software application providers, value-added resellers and web developers, serve as a source of new business opportunities, primarily for small and medium-sized customers," it added.