n Jan. 11, 2005, San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone Holdings Inc. filed an S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The statement did not indicate how many shares will be offered or estimate the price of the initial public offering (IPO), but the company hopes to raise up to $230 million.

VeriFone said it would use the proceeds to pay off $72 million in debt and a prepayment premium of $2.2 million and for possibly acquiring companies and new technologies down the road.

As part of its IPO, VeriFone will issue and sell a portion of the shares, and the company's stockholders will sell the other portion. The company has applied for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the trading symbol "PAY." Credit Suisse First Boston and JPMorgan Securities Inc. will serve as joint managers for the offering.

Majority owner of VeriFone is Chicago-based venture capital firm, GTCR Golder Rauner LLC, which recapitalized it in 2002. VeriFone, a 24-year-old company, had its initial initial public offering in 1990, but Hewlett Packard Co. (HP) later acquired it in 1997.

An entity affiliated with Gores Technology Group bought VeriFone from HP in 2001 and still maintains a minor ownership interest in the company. Upon completion of the offering, GTCR will still control VeriFone, according to the S-1 filing.

As of Oct. 31, 2004, VeriFone reported $390.1 million in revenues. About $248.5 million of that is from its United States operations. The company employs approximately 850 people worldwide, including 309 in research and development.

In December 2004, VeriFone said it would acquire Return On Investment (ROI) Corp.'s PC-based POS payment processor, GO Software Inc. (see "VeriFone Buys GO Software From ROI Corp.," The Green Sheet, Dec. 27, 2004, issue 04:12:02).

In May 2003 ISO iPayment Inc. (NASDAQ: IPMT) went public; in August 2004, Heartland Payment Systems Inc. filed an S-I statement with the SEC, and Cardtronics filed one in March 2004.