TeamViewer: German rival to Slack pulls off Europe’s biggest IPO of 2019

Oliver Steil, Chief Executive Officer of software company TeamViewer AG and Stefan Gaiser, Chief Financial Officer of TeamViewer attend TeamViewer's initial public offering (IPO) at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, September 25, 2019. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski
Oliver Steil, Chief Executive Officer of software company TeamViewer AG and Stefan Gaiser, Chief Financial Officer of TeamViewer. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

German tech firm TeamViewer pulled off Europe’s biggest initial public offering of 2019 on the Frankfurt stock exchange on Wednesday.

TeamViewer priced its IPO at €26.25 euros per share, giving the online connectivity app a market valuation of €5.25bn. However, shares dipped to around the €25 mark in early trading.

TeamViewer is a connectivity tool for online meetings, desktop sharing, video conferences, and IT support. It competes with the likes of Zoom, Okta, and the hugely popular Slack, which made its stock exchange debut in June with a $23bn valuation.

The startup was founded by Tilo Rossmanith in 2005 in Baden-Württemberg, southern Germany. The company says TeamViewer app has been installed on two billion devices to date, and that since moving to a subscription model in 2018 it has secured over 360,000 subscribers.

TeamViewer’s debut stole the crown from Italian tech payment-services company Nexi, which, at €2.01bn, was Europe’s largest IPO of the year when it listed in April.

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British private equity firm Permira bought TeamViewer in 2014 for €870m and will keep 58% of the company, raising €2.21bn with the other 42%.

Jörg Rockenhäuser, head of Permira for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland said in a statement: “We are convinced that TeamViewer is very well positioned as leading global connectivity platform and the the Permira Funds will continue to back the company as a major shareholder.”

“The strong interest of investors in our IPO is a great endorsement of our work.” said CEO Oliver Steil in a statement. “We are excited to further strengthen our position as the leading global connectivity platform.”

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