Tech IPOs afire: HomeAway raises $216 million

Keeping the technology IPO train rolling right along, HomeAway sees its share prices surge 49%

The tech IPO wave is staying alive.

Vacation rental site HomeAway debuted on Nasdaq Wednesday, raising $216 million from investors who have by now warmed up to the technology company initial public offering, back from the dead. LinkedIn, Pandora, Renren and Yandex are the last four biggest tech companies to go public.

HomeAway had priced its offering at $27 per share, giving the company a valuation of $2 billion. Shares surged 49 percent by the day’s end, closing at $40.21. The high for the day was $42.30, more than 50 percent higher than the initial share price.

For those who’ve never heard of HomeAway, it’s kind of like Airbnb except exclusively for fully-furnished vacation rentals. As you’ll see on the site’s landing page, you simply select where and when you want to go, how many bedrooms, and how many beds and HomeAway digs up properties for you.

The marketplace currently features over 560,000 listings.

In 2010, HomeAway made $167.9 million in revenue, a 40 percent increase from 2009. Net income for 2010 was $16.9 million. Of its total revenue in 2010, 38 percent came from outside the U.S. Despite all that, HomeAway is not yet profitable.

All those investors happily snatching up shares today must have faith in the company when it cites analysts as estimating the vacation rental market to be worth more than $85 billion in the U.S. and Europe alone.

Since some time has passed since the above-mentioned companies went public, it might be worth taking a look at how they’re doing now, to give an idea of where HomeAway is headed.

Chinese social networking site Reren's shares surged 35.4 percent to $18.95 on its first day, but prices have since dipped to $8.57. On its first day, LinkedIn shares doubled to $94.25 from the set IPO price of $45, and have remained somewhat more stable at $87.99. Stock in Yandex and Pandora, too, have remained pretty much in line with their first-day IPO levels. Now, we're just waiting for Zynga to file.

In its six year pre-IPO history, the Austin, Texas startup raised over $500 million from several prominent venture capital groups including: America Capital, Austin Ventures, Google Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), Redpoint Ventures, Technology Crossover Ventures and Trident Ventures.