CDW Plans IPO After 5 Years As A Private Company: Reuters

Reuters, citing unnamed sources, late Thursday said owners of CDW, a huge solution provider, direct marketing, and government IT services company, are planning to take CDW private and have hired JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays PLC and Goldman Sachs Group.

CDW was founded in 1984 by Michael Krasny as Computer Discount Warehouse and first became a public company in 1993. It went private when it was acquired by equity companies Madison Dearborn Partners and Providence Equity Partners.

[Related: CDW Closes Takeover by Madison Dearborn, Providence ]

It appears to be a good time for CDW to return to the public stage.

Despite its status as a private company, CDW in December reported full-year 2012 sales of $10.1 billion, up 5.5 percent over sales in 2011, with gross profit up 5.4 percent to $1.67 billion and adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) up 6.9 percent to $766.6 million.

CDW revenue in 2006, the last full year before it went private, was reported as $6.8 billion, with income reported for that year of $266 million.

The success of a CDW IPO could help serve as a guide to Dell, which is moving to go private via a leveraged buyout to reorganize itself to be less of a PC-centric company away from Wall Street scrutiny.

Should CDW do an IPO, it would be in good company. Seagate and other tech companies have gone private and then public in the last few years after reorganizing their businesses.

CDW did not respond to requests for more information by publication time.

PUBLISHED MARCH 8, 2013