Luna Innovations

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Luna Innovations

Type of Company	(NASDAQ: LUNA)
Founded	Blacksburg, Virginia (1991)
Headquarters	Roanoke, Virginia, USA
Key people	Kent A. Murphy, President and CEO
Industry	Energy, Telecommunications, Life Sciences
Products	Molecular Chemistry and Sensing
Revenue	$4.5 million quarter ending March 31, 2006
Employees	185
Website	http://www.lunainnovations.com

Luna Innovations is a company headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia. Luna Innovations has developed over a dozen products and technologies for applications related to molecular chemistry and sensing. The molecular technologies division specializes in coatings, flame retardants, and nanomaterials. The sensing solutions division specializes in fiber optics and ultrasonics. Luna Innovations' customers are in the energy, telecommunications, life sciences, and defense industires. Luna Innovations was founded by an electrical engineering professor at Virginia Tech and was originally headquartered in the university's corporate research park in Blacksburg, Virginia. Luna Innovations has moved its headquarters to Roanoke and has announced plans to construct a building in the Riverside Center being developed by the Carilion Biomedical Center. Carilion owns about a third of Luna Innovations.

Luna Innovations has six locations across Virginia: Blacksburg, Roanoke, Danville, Charlottesville, Hampton, and McLean. The company currently has about 185 employees. Two divisions of Luna Innovations have been sold to other companies. Luna Energy, which developed pipeline monitoring sensors for the oil and gas industry, was acquired by oil field services firm Baker Hughes. Luna i-Monitoring, which developed a suite of integrated wireless sensors for remote monitoring for the oil and gas industry, was acquired by IHS Energy.

Luna Innovations announced plans in 2006 for an Initial Public Offering of approximately four million shares priced at $11 to $13. The trading symbol for the shares is (NASDAQ: LUNA). The company plans to finance new products for the marketplace and decrease its reliance on government funded research contracts. The stock was first traded on June 2, 2006, and generated $21 million from 3.5 million shares of stock sold at $6 apiece. Luna decided to lower the price in response to recent offerings, such as for Vonage, which lost value after trading began.