Silver Spring Networks considering IPO

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Privately-held smart grid networking company Silver Springs Network is considering launching an initial public offering but will not do so this year, Chief Executive Scott Lang said on Tuesday.

Tapping the public markets is an option for Silver Spring and everything the company was doing was to "build a long term sustainable great investment for shareholders," Lang told the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit in San Francisco.

"That will be an option that will be at our doorstep," he said, adding that the company is well capitalized with a strong balance sheet and little debt with a revenue run rate of over $100 million this year.

Lang said the IPO will definitely not be launched this year but declined to comment on whether it will happen in 2010.

The Redwood City, Calif.-based startup, which has raised about $170 million so far, has attracted investments from technology heavyweights such as Google Inc.

Utility companies around the world are laying the groundwork to upgrade their network with smart grid technology, which measures and modifies power usage in homes and businesses, improving grid reliability.

Experts envision the smart grid as a network that will wring new efficiencies out of thousands of miles of power lines and open the door to more development of renewable electricity sources.

Silver Spring isn't looking to be bought, Lang said, addressing speculation that network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc was interested in Silver Spring.

"I have an enormous amount of respect for John Chambers," Lang said, referring to the chief executive officer of Cisco. "It's never been a conversation that he and I have had. It's never been a conversation at my board.

"Our focus is really to go build our own firm, not to be picked up by someone else, so to speak," Lang said.