Government-owned research outfit Data61 – once better known as CSIRO spinoff NICTA, and charged with bringing CSIRO innovations to market – looks to be preparing to bank a tidy sum when spinout company Audinate, which NICTA helped set up, is due to list on the ASX boards on Friday.
Audinate’s major product is Dante, a system for transmitting high quality audio signals via standard IT networks rather than by analog cables.
It was first developed in 2004 by Aidan Williams, formerly of Motorola Australia. In 2006 NICTA was brought in to help develop the concept and commercialise it.
Audinate gained its first customer in 2007 and now has some 360 audio technology companies using Dante. They include consumer electronics stars Yamaha – a major investor in the company – Bose, Sony, Sennheiser and Shure. These and other companies are using Dante software in 1100 different audio products.
Some 17 million Audinate shares have been on offer in Friday’s float at A$1.22 each, raising $21 million and valuing the company at $72.6 million.
The shares are tipped to list at well over this level, given the company’s huge and growing sales.
Data61 holds 1.1 million shares in the float and aims to sell 70 percent of them, or 770,000. It should be able to bank a handy couple of million dollars if the shares go as well as some market watchers are tipping.
Many people will be watching the charts on Friday …
