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Tech IPO fever continues: Report suggests Box is up next

A honeymoon-like hangover is purveying Wall Street following Twitter's IPO -- if not a dangerous disconnect with reality too.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor
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In the wake of Twitter's debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, everyone is already looking for the next big tech IPO.

Analysts and investors could be looking toward the enterprise space, typically a safer spot based on the market launches from the likes of Workday, among others.

Without a doubt, one company on the IPO watchlist is enterprise cloud services company Box, which has been steadily growing its services and customer base since launching in 2005.

The Los Altos, Calif.-based company had more than 180,000 companies signed on as customers to its cloud-based collaboration platform as of its third annual sales and developer summit, BoxWorks, back in September.

There has been speculation that Box was seeking to go public eventually, fueled by comments from CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie, who remarked back in January during an interview with Bloomberg that Box is aiming to declare an initial public offering in 2014.

Based upon a report from Reuters on Friday, it looks like Box is moving full steam ahead on that plan.

The international news agency reported, based on unnamed sources said to be close to the deal, that Box has already enlisted Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and JPMorgan Chase to lead the offering. The starting fundraising goal is said to be approximately $500 million -- a modest sum when compared to Twitter, a company that still hasn't proven to be profitable.

ZDNet reached out to Box for comment. A Box spokesperson replied, "We do not comment on rumors and speculation."

Even though analysts have been predicting that tech IPOs (as well as M&A) activity would improve throughout 2013 into 2014, a honeymoon-like hangover is still purveying Wall Street following Twitter's first day, closing at nearly $45 per share, up 73 percent from the original initial public offering of $26 per share.

Nevertheless, there also appears to be a potentially dangerous disconnect with reality going on.

As MarketWatch already pointed out earlier today, Twitter shares are already slipping in line with a pattern that should now be familiar regarding new tech (especially social media) stocks. It's nothing to get bent out of shape over yet, but caution and patience would be valuable virtues in cases like these too.

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