Fusion-io Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of next-generation storage solution provider Fusion-io (NYSE: FIO  ) are plunging today, down by 12% at the low, after the company announced a secondary stock offering.

So what: The company, which counts Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL  ) co-founder Steve Wozniak as a key player, is selling approximately 8.8 million shares at an offering price of $33, which represents a roughly 9% discount to yesterday's closing price of $36.21. The company is selling three million of the shares, while other large shareholders are putting up the remaining 5.8 million shares. Fusion-io expects to net around $93.8 million in proceeds after all is said and done, but it won't receive any of the proceeds from the shares being sold by other shareholders.

Now what: Among the selling stockholders is CEO David Flynn, who is selling about 880,000 of his 6.8 million shares, reducing his stake in the company from 8% to under 7%. As of last quarter, the company was sitting on almost $202 million in cash and equivalents, and the company has no clear need for additional capital since the uses outlined in the prospectus are rather generic and vague. I think this offering is primarily geared toward giving some early insiders a chance to cash out some of their holdings. They still hold big stakes, so they're not jumping ship, and I still like the disruptive potential that Fusion-io has.

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