• San Francisco Chronicle, Thursday, August 16, 2007 11 AM

If you watch stocks, then you've probably heard a lot about the initial public offering of VMware, the most hyped tech IPO since Google in 2004. The virtualization software company went public at $29 per share, but opened Tuesday at $52 before closing Wednesday at $57.71--a near 100 percent surge. Expenses aside, VMware walked away with $957 million from its first day of trading, the largest opening for a technology stock since Google raised $1.2 billion in '04.

What's so special about this company? VMware is a leader in the breakthrough market known as virtualization software, programs that let computers and servers run several operating systems or applications at once. The result is massive energy savings for technology companies: VMware's Workstation software eliminates the need for multiple computers and servers. For years, programmers have toyed with the notion, but have not been able to execute it as seamlessly as VMware.

There's still plenty of mileage to be had. In all, VMware sold 33 million shares, which represents just 10 percent of the company's available stock. The rest is held by parent EMC, and information storage company. It bought VMware for $625 million in 2004. The IPO raised the company's market valuation to more than $19 billion. VMware is expected to have made more than $1 billion in the first half of this year.

Read the whole story at San Francisco Chronicle »