(Adds company valuations and background)
By Olivia Oran and Alistair Barr
Oct 11 (Reuters) - Cloud-based human resources softwarecompany Workday Inc priced its initial public offeringat $28 a share on Thursday, above its expected range, anunderwriter said.
The company raised $637 million by pricing 22.75 millionClass A shares, making it the largest tech IPO since Facebook.
Earlier in the week, Workday raised its price range to $24to $26 per share from $21 to $24 per share.
The IPO values the Pleasanton, California-based company,often cited as a leader in the burgeoning business of providingsoftware services to companies over the Internet, at almost $4.5billion.
Workday was co-founded by ex-PeopleSoft executives DavidDuffield and Aneel Bhusri who left PeopleSoft following itsacquisition by Oracle Corp in 2004. The company, whosesoftware helps enterprises such as Hewlett-Packardmanage resources like employees, will have a dual class votingstructure, with Class B shares worth 10 times the voting powerof Class A shares.
Duffield and Bhusri will hold 67 percent of the company'svoting power following the IPO.
The company, which competes with SAP and Oracle,is the latest in a series of IPOs from cloud-based companies,which let customers access their data and computing power fromremote servers. Proponents of cloud computing say it helps cutscosts.
Other recent public offerings from cloud-based companiesinclude ServiceNow , Demandware Inc andGuidewire Software Inc .
"Workday is going right after the heart of enterprisetechnology which is financials and HR," said Jeff Richards, apartner at GGV Capital who has invested in cloud computingcompanies. "People are interested in it because they may thinkit could be as big as Salesforce.com Inc one day."
Workday's revenue nearly doubled in 2011 to $134.4 million.Its net loss widened to $79.6 million from $56.2 million.
There has been rapid consolidation in the human resourcessoftware market as tech giants like International BusinessMachines Corp , SAP and Oracle have snapped up smallerplayers.
While consumer facing Internet companies like Facebook, Zynga and Groupon have struggled inrecent months, firms focusing on the enterprise market likeWorkday have seen their shares soar.
"The enterprise market stands to gain a lot more than theInternet space," said Lee Simmons, industry specialist at Dun &Bradstreet. "These are companies that provide a really tangibleservice to other businesses which is the value that investorssee."
Workday has over 340 customers including AmericanInternational Group Inc , Flextronics International Ltd, Four Seasons Hotels and Kimberly-Clark Corp .
The company's venture backers, Greylock Partners and NewEnterprise Associates, are not selling any shares in theoffering. Workday will use the IPO proceeds for expansion andworking capital.
Other large deals during the week included real estateservices firm Realogy Holding Corp's $1.1 billionoffering which priced Wednesday night.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were the leadunderwriters for the Workday the offering.
Workday will list on the New York Stock Exchange under theticket "WDAY."
(Reporting By Olivia Oran and Alistair Barr; Editing by GaryHill and Carol Bishopric)
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Keywords: WORKDAY IPO/