POP: Millennial Media doubles stock price in IPO debut

After picking a $13 IPO price, mobile ad company Millennial jumps to $26 in early trading on NYSE

(Updated to reflect the closing price)

Millennial Media has already felt a significant pop in early trading. The mobile ad network that priced its shares at $13 yesterday, debuted on the NYSE Thursday morning at $25 and jumped as high as $26 -- a nearly instant double in share price.

Trading under the symbol MM, the valuation of the company, the stock closed on its debut day at $25 -- which puts the company valuation at nearly $2 billion.

Millennial which filed its first S-1 in early January, raised over $130 million in the offering, which is up from $75 million originally stated in earlier filings.

Millennial, one of the largest remaining independent mobile ad networks, currently serves ads to 200 million unique users worldwide, including approximately 100 million unique users in the US. More than 30,000 apps are enabled by developers to receive ads delivered by Millennial.

From 2009 to 2010, Millennial’s revenue increased 195% from $16.2 million to $47.8 million, and the company took a net loss of $7.6 million, and $7.1 million, in those years, respectively. From 2010 to 2011, revenue increased 117% from $47.8 million to $103.7 million. In 2011, the company saw a net loss of just $287,000.

The Baltimore-based mobile advertising company's CEO Paul Palmieri rang the opening bell at the exchange.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital were acting as lead underwriters for the offering that was originally filed for on January 6. 

Millennial is currently one of the largest remaining independent mobile ad networks and serves ads to 200 million unique users worldwide, including approximately 100 million unique users in the United States. The company is currently only second to Google (which holds a whopping 71%) in the mobile ad platform sector.

More than 28,000 apps have Millennial ads integrated and more than 7,000 different mobile device types and models can take the ads. The system is compatible with all major operating systems, including Apple iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry and Symbian. 

This increase IPO price range could be in response to a more positive trend in the public markets or could be in response to the grwoing interest in more mobile marketing opportunities and focus, but either way it spells confidence from the Millennial team as it inches closer to IPO time.

Millennial has been competing for the same advertising clients and developer inventory providers as the countless other advertising companies but has been able to secure around 16.7% of the market, according to market research firm IDC.

And, the mobile app market is just exploding. Forecasts place the total number of downloads from mobile application stores worldwide will increase from 17.7 billion in 2011 to 108.8 billion in 2015, representing a compound annual growth rate of 57%. 

Millennial, which started operating in 2006, is backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Charles River Ventures and Columbia Capital.