By John McDuling
The most prominent global technology company to have emerged from Australian shores is on the brink of another significant valuation milestone.
Shares in Sydney-headquartered software giant Atlassian soared to a new peak on Friday morning local time after the company reported stronger than expected quarterly results, and said it expected to surpass $US800 million ($1.01 billion) in revenue this financial year.
In after hours trading on the Nasdaq, Atlassian shares had climbed 12 per cent to rise above $45 - implying a market value for the business of more than $US10 billion ($12.7 billion).
Atlassian, which famously bypassed the ASX to list on the Nasdaq in the US in 2015, is already more valuable than some of Australia's best-known corporate icons such as airline Qantas and Rupert Murdoch's publishing giant News Corp.
Co-CEOs Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar continue to own more than half of the company.Credit: Trevor Collens
The company, which makes software such as JIRA, a project management tool for developers, wrote revenues of $US193.8 million in the June quarter, up 42 per cent on a year earlier, and beating consensus analyst estimates, according to S&P Capital IQ, for $US186 million. It generated free cash flow of $US62.7 million, but booked a loss of $US14 million.
For the current financial year, Atlassian said it was targeting revenue of $US841 million to $US847 million, and free cash flow of between $US250 million and $US260 million.
Atlassian is domiciled in the UK, where tax rates are lower than Australia, but its biggest office remains in Sydney.
Its co-CEOs, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, continue to own more than half of the company. Based on the after-hours trading price, Mr Cannon-Brookes' stake would be worth more than $US3 billion, while Mr Farquhar's stake would be worth about $US2.5 billion, according to S&P Capital IQ data.
Trello, a project management tool for non-technical teams, which Atlassian acquired for $US425 million in January, now had 25 million registered users, it said.