Apple Enterprise Specialist Jamf Completes Big IPO As Channel Push Ramps Up

The device management software maker, which has been expanding its efforts with MSPs, saw its stock price surge after shares debuted on Wednesday.

Jamf completed its initial public offering Wednesday, raising about $320 million to continue its strong growth in the Apple device management software market.

The Minneapolis-based company priced its shares at $26 a piece, well above its initial expected range of $17 to $19 a share. Jamf’s stock price surged 54 percent as shares began trading Wednesday, to $40.13 a share (as of just before 2 p.m. Eastern Time).

[Related: Apple Acquires Device Management Startup Fleetsmith]

Jamf is a leader in the market for software used to manage Apple devices--including Macs, iPhones and iPads--within businesses.

The company sold 13.5 million shares itself through going public, worth $351 million, though Jamf said it will see about $319.7 million in net proceeds after commissions and discounts are taken out. Existing shareholders sold 4.5 million shares--giving the Jamf IPO a total value of $468 million.

With a focus on enabling Apple device usage within businesses, Jamf has seen strong growth in part through increased efforts with channel partners, company executives have told CRN.

Revenue for Jamf totaled $204 million in 2019, up from $146.5 million the year before, the firm disclosed in its IPO intentions filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. First-quarter revenue reached $60.4 million, up 37 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Jamf reported a net loss of $32.6 million in 2019 and $8.3 million in Q1.

The company reports having more than 40,000 customers and managing more than 17 million Apple devices, including for prominent customers such as IBM, SAP and even Apple itself.

Jamf‘s flagship product, Jamf Pro, is an enterprise mobility management offering for managing and securing Apple devices.

Thanks to Jamf‘s “very close partnership” with Apple, “we get the support that we need, and we feel like we can provide a better solution in working with Apple,” Jamf CEO Dean Hager said in an interview with CRN in November. “No matter who we go to, we are actually positioning and selling—as are our channel partners—the Apple experience. And by that I mean, it’s always an Apple device, and it is the Apple experience that Apple originally intended.”

For its next phase of channel expansion, Jamf has been looking to work more closely with MSPs, company executives have told CRN.

“We want to continue to enhance our programs around MSP to make it more palatable for them,” said Gianpiero Policicchio, manager for North American channel sales at Jamf, in November. “I think we’re also looking at continuing down the road of billing based on utilization, which is really the true MSP model. So we’re shifting a lot of what we’re doing. We’ve already started down this road, but I think we’re really solidifying it.”