SSA One Of Few Techs To Cast Out IPO Line; Its Shares Above Water; Company had to reduce size of initial offering in face of a cautious market.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Byline: J. BONASIA

SSA Global Technologies had to swim upstream when the company went public earlier this year.

Investors have been nervous about initial public offerings in general and particularly skittish about software IPOs. What's more, SSA's market -- business software -- is a minefield. The industry's giants are merging, and many software customers are shying away from large purchases.

That all made SSA's IPO a hard sell. The deal was scaled back from 14.3 million shares to just 9 million. The IPO price also was lowered from $13 - $15 per share to $11.

But SSA went public on May 26. And shares are up. It trades near 13.

The company has a number of advantages, analysts say. For one, it's set its sights on one of the few prizes left in the business software field: midsize customers.

It's also swallowed up many smaller competitors. That's let it quickly build market share -- and given it new customers to sell its other products to.