Virtualization software vendor VMware got a nice pop in its IPO debut on Wall Street on Tuesday, August 14, 2007.

In one of the most successful IPOs of 2007, VMware’s shares closed at $51 on its opening day Tuesday, a 76% increase over its IPO price of $29.

On its first trading day on the New York Stock Exchange, VMware’s shares traded as high as $55.50 before retreating to $51.

VMware’s technology allows companies to save on hardware costs by running multiple operating systems and applications on a single machine. As a key enabler of server consolidation that’s crucial for large corporations, virtualization is a hot technology.

VMware is a subsidiary of storage technology vendor EMC.