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>>> Otonomo, Leading Platform and Marketplace for Vehicle Data, to List on Nasdaq Through a Business Combination with Software Acquisition Group Inc. II
Yahoo Finance
February 1, 2021
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/otonomo-leading-platform-marketplace-vehicle-114900822.html
Otonomo Technologies Ltd. (Otonomo), provider of a leading platform and marketplace for vehicle data and positioned at the epicenter of the data revolution in the automotive and mobility space, announces a business combination with Software Acquisition Group Inc. II (Nasdaq: SAII) ("Software Acquisition"), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company or SPAC, to become publicly listed.
The transaction is expected to result in excess of $307 million in cash comprised of Software Acquisition’s $172.5 million of cash in trust, assuming no redemptions by public stockholders, a fully committed primary and secondary PIPE of $172.5 million led by institutional investors Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, BNP Paribas Asset Management Energy Transition Fund and Senvest Management LLC with support from strategic investors Dell Technologies Capital and Hearst Ventures, and approximately $25 million of cash currently on hand.
The transaction implies an equity value of approximately $1.4 billion and Otonomo is expected to have approximately $307 million of cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet, assuming no redemptions by Software Acquisition’s stockholders.
Following the targeted closing of the transaction in the second quarter of 2021, the combined company will be listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "OTMO".
The transaction will enable Otonomo to reinforce its position as market leader, accelerate its go-to-market strategies and unlock new use cases and end markets.
Otonomo Technologies, Ltd., a leading platform and marketplace for vehicle data, and Software Acquisition Group, Inc. II (Nasdaq: SAII), a US publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for a business combination. Upon closing of the transaction, the combined company will operate under the Otonomo name and will be listed on Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol "OTMO".
Company Overview
Otonomo is the premier one-stop shop for vehicle data. Since its founding in 2015, Otonomo has built a vehicle data platform and marketplace that now fuels an ecosystem of 16 OEMs, fleets and more than 100 service providers. The platform ingests more than 4 billion data points per day from over 40 million global connected vehicles, then reshapes and enriches them, in order to accelerate the time to market for new services that improve the in-and-around the car experience. Otonomo’s platform allows automotive OEMs the opportunity to create new revenue streams by enabling the utilization of the vast amounts of data vehicles generate on a daily basis and that OEMs are required to store and maintain.
In addition to its proprietary data platform, Otonomo has developed a robust suite of SaaS offerings that provide data consumers with additional capabilities and vertically specific applications. Privacy by design and neutrality are at the core of Otonomo’s platform, which enables GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy-regulation-compliant solutions using both personal and aggregate data.
Otonomo vehicle data is being utilized by organizations and businesses across diverse areas, including, but not limited to fleet management, insurance, in-vehicle management, emergency services, mapping, electric vehicle (EV) management, subscription-based services, parking, predictive maintenance, in-vehicle services, traffic management and smart cities.
Management Comments
Jonathan Huberman, Software Acquisition Group Inc. II, CEO, said:
"We established Software Acquisition Group Inc. II to invest in a world class software company that is positioned to be the leading player in a market that has enormous potential. We reviewed multiple potential partners and Otonomo stood out as the clear choice. Otonomo management not only identified the significant opportunity that exists in the automotive data space, but they have also achieved early market leadership and are positioned for impressive growth."
Ben Volkow, Otonomo, CEO and Founder, said:
"This is an industry defining moment. Otonomo’s vehicle data platform and marketplace are primed to unleash the full potential of connected vehicle data. We have succeeded in bringing the widest diversity of data providers to a marketplace, developing a proprietary and highly scalable technology platform, and building a global and diverse network of data providers and consumers. Recent investments and our partnership with Software Acquisition Group II signify confidence in our strategy, the forward drive of our business and the significant growth opportunity that awaits. We look forward to Otonomo’s continued and increasing impact on the driving experience, unlocking new opportunities for our data consumers across multiple markets and the entire transportation ecosystem."
Otonomo Highlights
Otonomo’s mission is to harness the immense potential of automotive data by providing thousands of organizations across a broad range of markets the ability to seamlessly access, explore, analyze, and unlock the full potential of vehicle data. By doing so, Otonomo is committed to delivering solutions that adhere to the strictest privacy and security standards. We aspire to create a mobility ecosystem that uses data to make every driving experience truly rewarding. Our vision is to enable a world of environmentally friendly cities that run more efficiently. Our data services platform reshapes, harmonizes, enriches and secures connected car data so that our growing network of technology partners and customers can deliver advanced driver and transportation solutions.
Transaction Overview
Pursuant to the transaction, Software Acquisition will combine with Otonomo at an estimated $1.4 billion pro forma equity value. Otonomo’s existing shareholders are rolling approximately 97% of their equity into the combined company and will own approximately 72% of the issued and outstanding shares immediately following closing of the business combination, assuming no redemptions by Software Acquisition’s public stockholders.
The transaction is expected to result in excess of $307 million in cash comprised of Software Acquisition’s $172.5 million cash held in trust, assuming no redemptions by public stockholders, a fully committed $172.5 million PIPE comprised of $142.5 million primary and $30 million secondary shares and approximately $25 million of cash currently on hand. Cash proceeds from the transaction will be used to fund growth of the combined company, accelerating go-to-market strategy, strengthening our leadership position and unlocking new use cases and end markets.
The PIPE is anchored by institutional investors Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, BNP Paribas Asset Management Energy Transition Fund and Senvest Management LLC, with support from strategic investors Dell Technologies Capital, and Hearst Ventures. Current Otonomo shareholders will own a majority of the combined company at closing.
The Board of Directors of Otonomo has unanimously approved the proposed transaction, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021. The board of directors of Software Acquisition has also unanimously approved the proposed transaction. The proposed transaction is subject to approval by Otonomo and Software Acquisition stockholders and the satisfaction of the closing conditions set forth in the business combination agreement. Following completion of the transaction, Otonomo’s highly experienced management team will operate the combined company with Ben Volkow continuing to serve as Chief Executive Officer.
Additional information about the proposed business combination, including a copy of the business combination agreement and the investor presentation, will be filed by Software Acquisition in a Current Report on Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission and will be available at www.sec.gov.
Advisors
Citigroup is serving as financial advisor to Otonomo, and Latham & Watkins LLP and Gross Law Firm are serving as legal advisors to Otonomo. B. Riley Securities is acting as placement agent and capital markets advisor, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Gornitzky & Co are acting as legal advisor to Software Acquisition Group Inc. II.
Investor Conference Call Information
Otonomo and Software Acquisition will host a joint investor conference call regarding the proposed transaction today, February 1, 2021. The investor presentation is being filed by Otonomo and Software Acquisition with the SEC prior to the call and will be available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.
Access the audio replay here.
About Otonomo
Otonomo fuels a data ecosystem of 16 OEMs, fleets and more than 100 service providers. Our platform securely ingests more than 4 billion data points per day from over 40 million global connected vehicles, then reshapes and enriches it, to accelerate time to market for new services that improve the in-and-around the car experience. Privacy by design and neutrality are at the core of our platform, which enables GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy-regulation-compliant solutions using both personal and aggregate data. Use cases include emergency services, mapping, EV management, subscription-based services, parking, predictive maintenance, insurance, media, in-vehicle services, traffic management, and smart city solutions. Otonomo is headquartered and has an R&D center in Israel, and it has a presence in the United States, and Europe.
For more information, visit www.otonomo.io.
About Software Acquisition Group Inc II
Software Acquisition Group, Inc. II. is a blank check company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination. Software Acquisition Group, Inc. II raised $172.5 million in its initial public offering in September 2020. Software Acquisition securities are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbols SAII, SAIIU and SAIIW.
Additional information and Where to Find It
This communication relates to a proposed business combination between Otonomo Technologies Ltd. ("Otonomo") and Software Acquisition Group Inc. II ("Software Acquisition"). In connection with the proposed business combination, Otonomo intends to file a registration statement on Form F-4 that will include a proxy statement of Software Acquisition in connection with Software Acquisition’s solicitation of proxies for the vote by Software Acquisition’s stockholders with respect to the proposed business combination and a prospectus of Otonomo. The proxy statement/prospectus will be sent to all Software Acquisition stockholders and Otonomo and Software Acquisition will also file other documents regarding the proposed business combination with the SEC. This communication does not contain all the information that should be considered concerning the proposed business combination and is not intended to form the basis of any investment decision or any other decision in respect of the business combination. Before making any voting or investment decision, investors and security holders are urged to read the registration statement, the proxy statement/prospectus and all other relevant documents filed or that will be filed with the SEC in connection with the proposed Business Combination as they become available because they will contain important information about the proposed transaction.
Investors and security holders will be able to obtain free copies of the registration statement, proxy statement/prospectus and all other relevant documents filed or that will be filed with the SEC by Otonomo and Software Acquisition through the website maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov. In addition, the documents filed by Otonomo may be obtained free of charge from Otonomo’s website at www.otonomo.io or by written request to Otonomo at Otonomo Technologies Ltd., 16 Abba Eban Blvd., Herzliya Pituach, Israel 467256.
Participants in Solicitation
Otonomo, Software Acquisition and their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from Software Acquisition’s shareholders with respect to the proposed business combination. You can find information about Software Acquisition’s directors and executive officers and their ownership of Software Acquisition’s securities in Software Acquisition’s final prospectus relating to its initial public offering, dated September 14, 2020, which was filed with the SEC on September 15, 2020 and is available free of charge at the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. Additional information regarding the participants in the solicitation of proxies from Software Acquisition’s shareholders and their direct and indirect interests will be included in the proxy statement/prospectus for the proposed business combination when it becomes available. Shareholders, potential investors and other interested persons should read the proxy statement/prospectus carefully when it becomes available before making any voting or investment decisions. You may obtain free copies of these documents from the sources indicated above.
No Offer or Solicitation
This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or exchange, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or exchange any securities, or a solicitation of any vote or approval, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, sale or exchange would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of section 10 of the Securities Act, or an exemption therefrom.
Forward-Looking Statements
This communication includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws with respect to the proposed business combination between Otonomo and Software Acquisition, including statements regarding the benefits of the business combination, the anticipated timing of the business combination, the products and services offered by Otonomo and the markets in which it operates, and Otonomo’s projected future results. These forward-looking statements are generally identified by terminology such as "believe," "may," "will," "potentially," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "could," "would," "project," "target," "plan," "expect," or the negatives of these terms or variations of them or similar terminology. These forward-looking statements are based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Software Acquisition and its management, and Otonomo and its management, as the case may be, are inherently uncertain. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. New risks and uncertainties may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible to predict all risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this document, including but not limited to: (i) the risk that the transaction may not be completed in a timely manner or at all, which may adversely affect the price of Software Acquisition’s securities, (ii) the risk that the transaction may not be completed by Software Acquisition’s business combination deadline and the potential failure to obtain an extension of the business combination deadline if sought by Software Acquisition, (iii) the failure to satisfy the conditions to the consummation of the transaction, including the adoption of the business combination agreement by the shareholders of Software Acquisition and Otonomo, the satisfaction of the minimum trust account amount following redemptions by Software Acquisition’s public shareholders and the receipt of certain governmental and regulatory approvals, (iv) the lack of a third party valuation in determining whether to pursue the proposed business combination, (v) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the business combination agreement, (vi) the effect of the announcement or pendency of the transaction on Otonomo’s business relationships, performance, and business generally, (vii) risks that the proposed business combination disrupts current plans of Otonomo and potential difficulties in Otonomo employee retention as a result of the proposed transaction, (viii) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Otonomo or against Software Acquisition related to the business combination agreement or the proposed business combination, (ix) the ability of Otonomo to list its ordinary shares on the Nasdaq, (x) volatility in the price of the combined company’s securities due to a variety of factors, including changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which Otonomo plans to operate, variations in performance across competitors, changes in laws and regulations affecting Otonomo’s business and changes in the combined capital structure, and (xi) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations after the completion of the proposed business combination, and to identify and realize additional opportunities. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of Software Acquisition’s, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and other documents filed by Software Acquisition from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and the registration statement on Form F-4 and proxy statement/prospectus discussed above. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Otonomo and Software Acquisition assume no obligation and do not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Nothing in this communication should be regarded as a representation by any person that the forward-looking statements set forth herein will be achieved or that any of the contemplated results of such forward-looking statements will be achieved.
Any financial and capitalization information or projections in this communication are forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions that are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond Otonomo’s and Software Acquisition’s control. While such information and projections are necessarily speculative, Otonomo and Software Acquisition believe that the preparation of prospective financial information involves increasingly higher levels of uncertainty the further out the projection extends from the date of preparation. The assumptions and estimates underlying the projected results are inherently uncertain and are subject to a wide variety of significant business, economic and competitive risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the projections. The inclusion of financial information or projections in this communication should not be regarded as an indication that Otonomo or Software Acquisition, or their respective representatives and advisors, considered or consider the information or projections to be a reliable prediction of future events.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210201005417/en/
Contacts
For Otonomo
Media
Jodi Joseph Asiag
Otonomo
media@otonomo.io
Investors
Michael Anderson
Blueshirt Capital Advisors
investors@otonomo.io
For Software Acquisition Group Inc. II
Media and Investors
Jonathan Huberman
jon@softwareaqn.com
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>>> Israeli Startup Otonomo Nearing Merger With Software SPAC
Bloomberg
By Gillian Tan, David Welch, and Edward Ludlow
January 29, 2021
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-29/israeli-startup-otonomo-said-nearing-merger-with-software-spac?srnd=premium
Platform is fueled by data from more than 22 million vehicles
Otonomo’s earlier investors include Bessemer, Avis, Maniv
Otonomo, an Israeli startup that operates a data platform linked to millions of connected cars, is in talks to go public through a merger with Software Acquisition Group Inc. II, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The special purpose acquisition company is in talks to raise new equity to support a transaction that could be announced as soon as next week, said the person, who requested anonymity because the information isn’t public. The deal size couldn’t immediately be learned and it’s possible that, as with any deal that isn’t finalized, talks could collapse.
A representative for Software Acquisition Group declined to comment. Representatives for Otonomo didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The SPAC’s shares rose 18% in after-hours trading on Friday.
Otonomo, led by Chief Executive Officer and founder Ben Volkow, takes over 4 billion data points per day from more than 22 million connected vehicles, according to its website.
The data is used for emergency services, mapping, parking and predictive maintenance, and partners include BMW AG, Daimler AG, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Mercedes-Benz.
The company last year raised fresh capital from investors including SK Holdings Co., Avis Budget Group, Maniv Mobility, Alliance Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners. It was valued at about $465 million after that funding round, PitchBook data shows.
Software Acquisition Group, led by CEO Jonathan Huberman, raised $172.5 million in a September initial public offering and said at the time that it intends to focus its search on software companies.
Huberman’s first SPAC in October merged with CuriosityStream Inc., a media company that specializes in documentaries, among other features.
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I think you're absolutely right! I am studying the topic managed it service providers and I think that the market for companies that provide such services will grow in the near future that will lead to a surge in competition and software on the market, it will certainly not be as big as 10 years ago.
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>>> UiPath files confidential IPO paperwork, could become one of New York City’s biggest tech companies
CNBC
DEC 17 2020
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/17/uipath-files-for-ipo-could-become-one-of-nycs-biggest-tech-companies.html
Robotic process automation company UiPath has submitted a draft registration to the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering.
The company becomes the latest to take advantage of a frenzied IPO market and bull market for stocks that’s continued despite nine months of the coronavirus pandemic and a difficult year for the broader economy.
Earlier this year, UiPath raised $225 million at a $10.2 billion valuation — one that would rank it among the most valuable New York City tech companies at the time of its Wall Street debut.
The company, ranked No. 50 on this year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list, did not disclose its financial information nor did it specify how many shares would be offered.
UiPath is the latest company taking advantage of a bull market that’s continued despite nine months of the coronavirus pandemic and a difficult year for the broader economy. Three of the 10 biggest tech IPOs for U.S. companies, in terms of capital raised, have taken place this year. Two happened on consecutive days in the last week, when DoorDash and Airbnb started trading on Dec. 9 and 10. The other was software vendor Snowflake, which had its New York Stock Exchange debut in September.
On Thursday, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and online retailer Poshmark both announced their intention to go public.
Investors and bankers have told CNBC that UiPath is among a large crop of subscription software companies that could have significant debuts next year. Others include GitLab, a site that helps developers share and manage code; HashiCorp, which provides cloud infrastructure automation software; Databricks, a provider of software that allows companies to analyze and use large data sets; and Tanium, a cloud security vendor.
Earlier this year, UiPath raised $225 million at a $10.2 billion valuation — one that would rank it among the most-valuable New York City tech companies like Etsy and MongoDB at the time of its Wall Street debut. The round was led by Alkeon Capital Management, a tech-focused hedge fund that’s become one of the industry’s best performers this year by betting big on e-commerce retailers and work-from-home plays.
UiPath uses artificial intelligence to build software robots that let companies automate back-office, repetitive and time-consuming tasks. The goal is to move humans away from this work and allow them to focus on things that bring more value to a company. Investors see great promise in this: Since the company was founded in 2005, UiPath has raised over $1 billion in funding from investors, including Coatue, Dragoneer, Sands Capital and Wellington. The company claims to have annual revenue of about $360 million and more than 6,300 customers, including Amazon, Bank of America and Verizon. It says 50% of Fortune 20 companies are clients.
As companies use AI from UiPath and other advanced technologies to help them with digital transformation, the whole topic of robotics seems eerily dystopian. The worry is that robots will replace humans in all kinds of tasks, repetitive and otherwise. UiPath says its software isn’t out to replace humans, but rather enable them to focus on parts of their job that only humans can do.
The company, which issued a release announcing the IPO registration, declined CNBC’s request for comment. Founder and CEO Daniel Dines said in a July statement that “Covid-19 has heightened the critical need of automation to address challenges and create value in days and weeks, not months and years,” adding that UiPath is “committed to working harder to help our customers evolve, transform, and succeed fast in the new normal.”
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>>> IPOs in 2021: After a year of impressive pandemic offerings, these tech companies expect to keep it rolling
MarketWatch
Jan. 2, 2021
By Emily Bary
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/another-rush-of-ipos-on-tap-for-2021-after-a-year-of-impressive-pandemic-offerings-11608773192?siteid=yhoof2
Despite COVID-19 and its economic effects, IPOs raised $150 billion in 2020, their best year since the dot-com-boom era, and the pipeline is full
It is typical for companies to delay their initial public offerings when the market for them is weak, but the unprecedented year that is 2020 is ending with companies delaying IPOs because the market is too strong.
Gaming company Roblox Inc. RBLX, and lending company Affirm Holdings Inc. AFRM, both opted to delay their IPOs that were planned for this December, following big first-day surges for Airbnb Inc. ABNB, -0.96% and DoorDash Inc. DASH, 5.04% shares. The huge initial pops for Airbnb and DoorDash suggest those companies left a lot of money on the table, and Roblox and Affirm are reportedly seeing whether they can better cash in on continuing strong demand for IPOs in 2021.
The delays were a suitable end to an unbelievable 2020 for IPOs, with young technology companies and blank-check offerings leading to the biggest year for Wall Street debuts since the heyday of the dot-com boom, despite a pandemic. In all, it was the best IPO year in terms of deal count and capital raises since the 1990s, according to data compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers, with 183 traditional IPOs and 242 SPAC deals raising slightly more than $150 billion in total.
The 2020 IPO market is also notable for the depth of billion-dollar deals, PwC’s IPO lead David Ethridge told MarketWatch. More than 20 companies raked in at least $1 billion through their offerings in 2020, led by Bill Ackman’s $4 billion special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, and capital raises topping $3 billion from Airbnb, DoorDash and database software company Snowflake Inc. SNOW, 0.04%.
Few would have predicted that a period accompanied by global economic woes brought on by a pandemic, elevated unemployment and high market volatility would also be highly conducive to IPOs, Ethridge said, but other dynamics could keep the IPO market roaring through 2021, in his view. He points to an accommodative interest-rate policy from the Federal Reserve that’s expected to persist for years, as well as positive developments on the vaccine front that could give the economy a jolt.
By postponing their offerings, Roblox and Affirm have time to file amended paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission that could enable them to either sell more shares or sell the same amount of shares for a much higher price, according to James Angel, a finance professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. But the companies are in a “high-stakes poker game,” he continued, since the SEC is reportedly backed up with paperwork and there’s no telling how long the IPO market will stay this hot.
Many companies are betting it will stay hot, with a rush of confidential and public IPO filings at the end of 2020 setting up a stacked slate of 2021 IPO candidates. Food-delivery company Instacart, clothing marketplace Poshmark POSH, , retail-trading platform Robinhood and software company UiPath are among the hottest names predicted to go public in the year ahead.
Those companies could face many other offers, however, especially from SPACs that have raised billions of dollars in 2020 in hopes of acquiring companies. SPACs proved “the perfect product for the time” as people looked to pour money into the equity markets this year, PwC’s Ethridge said.
“This is the year of the SPAC,” he told MarketWatch, with 2020 alone accounting for more than half of all SPAC deals over the past decade.
The coming months could feature a “private-to-public pop” in which companies that didn’t plan to IPO for two or so years end up going public via the SPAC route, according to Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
“You have $200 billion in capital out there hunting,” he told MarketWatch.
The options companies face as they consider going public were obvious in the case of Postmates, which navigated through SPAC offers, the IPO process and acquisition offers from competitors before deciding to merge with delivery rival Uber Technologies Inc. UBER, 2.38% earlier this year. MKM Partners analyst Rohit Kulkarni expects a “barbell-based approach,” in which smaller tech companies go public through SPACs, larger ones go public through IPOs, and a few large brand-name tech companies consider direct listings, as Palantir Technologies Inc. PLTR, 2.60% used when it went public in September without raising new funds.
The current environment could continue to see more private equity-backed companies come to market as well. A year ago, “people were talking about when we might see a recession, but you don’t hear any talk of that now because of where people see interest-rate policy now,” Ethridge said. That creates a more attractive setup for private-equity companies, in his view, since they normally don’t sell their shares at the time of an IPO but rather look to sell over time at higher prices.
“When you don’t think there’s going to be a recession, that’s a much more amenable forecast,” he said.
Here are some of the companies expected to attempt the 2021 journey to the hot IPO market before it cools down:
Consumer brands
The pandemic cast a new shine on some consumer-facing tech companies. Just a year ago, the food-delivery space was viewed as unattractive due to intense competition, a heavy reliance on subsidies and an enduring lack of profits, but DoorDash gained increased prominence with housebound diners during the COVID-19 crisis. Now investors seem upbeat about what the company will be able to do by combining its ballooning user base with a logistics network that could be used for more than just delivery.
DoorDash raised more than $3.3 billion through its December offering and saw its shares surge 85% on listing day. Companies like it that are benefiting from the stay-at-home trends brought on by the pandemic “will probably continue to do that over the next six to nine months,” said EquityZen Chief Revenue Officer Phil Haslett, since it will take time before a COVID-19 vaccine becomes widely distributed and the economy can fully reopen.
Fellow delivery-oriented company Instacart could follow in DoorDash’s footsteps during 2021. Prior to COVID-19, there was doubt over whether businesses like Instacart would ever be able to reach profitability due to a perceived need to subsidize deliveries, and the open question is “whether the pandemic has changed that,” said Deeksha Gupta, a finance professor at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. The crisis brought in a new base of users who hadn’t tried grocery delivery before, and some of those might stick around even after it becomes easier to resume old shopping habits again.
Another consumer name she’ll be watching out for is Poshmark, which enables people to buy and sell clothes from each other online. The company publicly filed for an IPO on Dec. 17, and was valued at $625 million in a 2017 funding round, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing PitchBook data.
“You can imagine that buying clothes might be something people would do less of during the pandemic,” Gupta said, but “positive news around an end to the pandemic potentially next year” is one factor that could impact investor expectations for how a business like Poshmark could perform as a public company.
Dating-app maker Bumble could also be headed for the public markets, after a strong year for rival Match Group Inc. MTCH, 0.92%. The company has reportedly filed confidential IPO paperwork, according to Bloomberg News, with aims for a February offering. Bumble has been trying to expand beyond the world of online dating with offshoots that let people make networking connections or search for platonic friendships, as the world of online dating is changed by the pandemic.
Financial technology
Robinhood helped make a new generation of investors interested in IPOs, and now the company looks likely to head down the public path itself. The company has reportedly picked Goldman Sachs to lead preparations for a 2021 IPO, according to Reuters. The company fetched a $11.7 billion private-market valuation in September.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase also is expected to seek an IPO amid strong recent rallies for cryptos like bitcoin in recent months. The company fetched a $7.7 billion private-market valuation in October 2018, according to Crunchbase, and announced a confidential IPO filing on Dec. 17.
“Given that companies such as Robinhood and Coinbase are seeing tailwinds through the recession and through the pandemic,” their stories could become “much more compelling,” MKM’s Kulkarni told MarketWatch.
The buy-now-pay-later trend gained steam in the U.S. as well during the COVID-19 crisis, and that might play out in the IPO market as well. Affirm, which enables consumers to make online purchases in installments, has already filed IPO paperwork. Klarna, a Swedish rival whose investors include Visa Inc. V, -0.61%, may follow in 2021. The company might “do a Spotify SPOT, -2.01% -type thing” and direct-list shares in the U.S., said Santosh Rao, the head of research at Manhattan Venture Partners.
Online-lending company SoFi could also come public, though CNBC reported that the company is looking into the SPAC route. The company, headed by former Twitter Inc. TWTR, -5.33% executive and Goldman Sachs banker Anthony Noto, got its start allowing people to refinance student loans and obtained a $4.8 billion private-market valuation in 2019. SoFi, which is short for Social Finance, has since branched into other areas of financial services, including mortgages and investing.
Stripe, one of the biggest unicorns, finds a place on IPO lists year after year for its sheer size, though Bloomberg News reported in November that the company is reportedly in talks to raise additional funds through the private markets that could value the company at more than $70 billion. Stripe, which enables businesses to accept payments online, was last valued at $36 billion in an April funding round.
Software
While Airbnb and DoorDash took the IPO stage late in the year, the initial boom in pandemic tech offerings belonged to software companies like Snowflake and Unity Software Inc. U, -4.06%. Experts expect many more software startups will be looking for similar riches in 2021, after products like Zoom Video Communications Inc. ZM, -1.68% received higher profiles amid stay-at-home orders.
“COVID is shining a light on companies that are selling software,” EquityZen’s Haslett said, and more businesses in this area could come public next year. Cybersecurity was always a hot area, but he sees another tailwind now that more people are working from home and logging into accounts remotely.
Tanium, a company that makes endpoint-security software, is among the top software candidates for 2021, according to Rao. “Endpoint security is very important especially with all this remote working,” he said. The company announced a new $150 million funding round in October that it said lifted its valuation to over $9 billion.
UiPath, which makes software for robotic process automation, cracks the shortlist for both Rao and Kulkarni. The company was valued at $10.2 billion through a July funding round, and reaching that threshold “feels like last-money-in before a public-market valuation,” Kulkarni said.
Education tech
Another area having its moment during the COVID-19 crisis is education technology, but there aren’t a lot of public ways to play the trend, said Kevin Landis, the chief investment officer of Firsthand Capital Management. While the educational status quo has been “firmly entrenched” for a long time, the pandemic may prove a tipping point.
Education is “a big, high dam that feels like it needs to break at some point and if it doesn’t after this, it feels like it may not happen in our lifetime,” he told MarketWatch.
Investors may get more public plays on digital educational tools in the year ahead, with Rao listing online-course provider Udemy among potential IPO candidates. The company “has some critical mass at this point,” he said, as it boasts 35 million students, and it got a vote of confidence in November when Tencent Holdings Ltd. 700, +3.14% made an investment that valued the company at more than $3 billion, Bloomberg reported.
EquityZen lists fellow online-course company Coursera on its list of potential IPO candidates. The company raised $130 million in a July funding round, according to The Information.
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>>> Stripe to Offer Citi, Goldman Accounts Through E-Commerce Giants
Bloomberg
By Jennifer Surane
December 3, 2020
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-03/stripe-to-offer-citi-goldman-accounts-through-e-commerce-giants
Online stores to have access to checking accounts, services
‘Business banking has largely been left behind,’ Stripe says
Stripe Inc. will team up with some of the world’s largest banks to offer checking accounts to businesses that sell their wares on e-commerce platforms such as Shopify Inc.
Stripe said banks including Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Barclays Plc will now be able to offer checking accounts and other financial services through e-commerce providers. If a coffee shop, for instance, uses Shopify to sell mugs and coffee beans online, it will now be able to open a bank account too.
“Everything about running an online business has been transformed by technology, but business banking has largely been left behind,” Karim Temsamani, head of banking and financial products at Stripe, said in a statement. “But we’re changing this.”
Businesses use Stripe’s software to accept online payments, and the company has benefited during the pandemic as people stuck at home have relied more heavily on e-commerce to do their shopping. The company is in talks to raise a new funding round that could value it at as much as $100 billion, Bloomberg reported last month.
For online firms, setting up a bank account takes an average of seven days, Stripe said. Almost a quarter of businesses ultimately have to send a fax to open the account, and more than half need to visit a bank branch. With its latest offering, which will be known as Stripe Treasury, the company is seeking to disrupt all that.
Still, Stripe is relying on established banks for the service.
“Our vision is for this partnership to fuel global commerce by enabling Stripe to launch the next-generation banking proposition for their clients,” Manish Kohli, global head of payments and receivables in Citigroup’s treasury and trade solutions business, said in the statement.
Stripe’s plans were reported earlier Thursday by the Wall Street Journal.
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>>> IPOs to watch in 2021: The 5 most anticipated debuts
Yahoo Finance
by Daniel Howley and Melody Hahm
December 23, 2020
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2021-ipo-market-roblox-affirm-atotech-petco-southeastern-grocers-201607439.html
Despite the near-constant upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 will go down as one of the best performing years for initial public offerings (IPOs). Over the last 12 months, a stunning 216 companies went public, the most since 2014, with firms raising an astonishing $78.1 billion in the process.
Consistent with previous years, healthcare and technology were the most popular sectors of the IPO market. Airbnb (ABNB), Doordash (DASH), Snowflake (SNOW), Lufax Holding (LU), and Royalty Pharma (RPRX) were the largest companies to go public this year.
And 2021 looks like it could be just as good for public debuts, according to Kathleen Smith, IPO ETF manager at Renaissance Capital.
“As long as the market holds up, we could very likely see a better year in 2021 than we saw in 2020,” Smith told Yahoo Finance. While the IPO market started out strong in 2020, the pipeline essentially closed down in March because of the pandemic before picking up steam again in the second half of the year. Momentum looks promising heading into the new year, assuming the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy stays intact for the foreseeable future.
Overall, this year’s slate of public offerings performed extraordinarily well during and after their IPOs. The Renaissance IPO ETF (IPO) is up 119% this year compared to the S&P’s overall 14.3% gain, logging its best year ever. The average return on a U.S. IPO this year was 75.4%, compared to last year’s 24.4% and 2018’s -1.9% loss.
With two COVID-19 vaccines now authorized in the U.S., one potential shift is a so-called return to normalcy that may not favor growth-oriented healthcare and tech companies, and instead may benefit cyclical names that aren’t as high-flying. “We can’t be so sure that the tech IPOs will be the ones at the top of the 2021 list. The minute there’s any kind of worry, markets correct and deals get priced more conservatively and they don’t get done,” Smith said.
2021’s big-name companies range from communication services and consumer discretionary to fintech and materials. Juggernauts like gaming platform Roblox, buy-now-pay-later retailer Affirm, and chemicals and equipment company Atotech are each poised to raise as much as $1 billion. And there are plenty of other firms waiting in the wings.
Roblox (RBLX)
If you’ve got children, you know Roblox. The online gaming platform, valued at $4 billion, allows users to create and publish their own video games using Roblox’s tool set. It’s part creation, part play, and expected to hit the public market next year. Founded in 2004 by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel, the company makes money through the sale of its Robux in-game currency.
Roblox’s S-1 indicates the company, along with the rest of the gaming industry, has experienced rapid growth in users and revenue, but its losses have ballooned in lockstep.
In the nine-month period ending in September, Roblox had 31.1 million daily active users, an 82% increase from the same period a year ago. Revenue hit $589 million, but its net losses totaled $203 million, four-and-a-half times the $46 million it lost in the same period of 2019.
Roblox, which was widely expected to debut in December, delayed its move into the public markets after Doordash and Airbnb made it difficult for the video game company to price its shares, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Smith says the firm should see a huge amount of interest from investors.
“I look at Roblox and, although they are losing money, they have positive cash flow and it’s a $1 billion-plus IPO, so I think investors are going to pay attention to that,” Smith said.
Affirm Holdings (AFRM)
Affirm Holdings, like Roblox, was expected to IPO in December 2020. However, it delayed the move until at least January 2021 after Doordash and Airbnb saw massive pops during their public offerings.
The company, which could see its valuation top out at $10 billion, is part of a growing number of buy-now-pay-later services that provides 0% interest or simple interest loans for consumers looking to purchase everything from shoes to exercise bikes.
Founded in 2012, the company is still losing money, posting net losses of $120.5 million and $112.6 million in 2019 and 2020, respectively, according to its S-1. Still, Affirm, which was founded by Paypal co-founder Max Levchin, is likely to see its IPO raise billions of dollars.
“The company is losing money and I think, although it’s growing really fast, these types of companies are like payday lenders,” Smith said. “They have some things investors have to pay attention to when it comes to rules and regulations.”
Atotech (ATC)
Initially expected to IPO in the first half of 2020, Carlyle Group-owned Atotech delayed its debut due to the coronavirus pandemic and fears that it would hurt its valuation. The company makes specialty chemicals and equipment found in everything from smartphones to communications infrastructure.
The German firm filed its F-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2020, reporting consolidated net losses of $23.7 million in 2018 on $1.2 billion in revenue. In the nine months ending in September 2019, though, the firm saw net income of $12 million on $877 million in revenue, and its IPO deal could top out at $1 billion.
Of course, the company will also have to contend with variables in the broader tech industry including the whims of consumers and enterprises purchase cycles for electronics infrastructure.
Petco (WOOF)
It’s where the pets go, and in 2021, it’s where investors will go, too. The pet retail giant Petco is set to go public in 2021 with a deal worth as much as $800 million. Founded in 1965, the company was last publicly traded in 2006 and has since been owned by private equity investors.
In the company’s S-1, CEO Ron Coughlin goes even further, saying: “Petco has grown from a local veterinary supplies shop to a disruptive, fully integrated, digital-led, comprehensive pet care ecosystem that puts the health and wellness of pets first.”
That’s a fancy way of saying you can get virtually everything you need for your pets from the retailer. And judging by online pet retailer Chewy’s (CHWY) stellar performance since going public in June 2019 — up 107% — Petco thinks the demand for pet products will only continue to grow.
The company, which will be delightfully listed as WOOF, has seen its profitability improve as of late. Net losses in 2018 came in at $413 million, but fell to $103 million in 2019. Net sales in the same period rose from $4.39 billion in 2018 to $4.43 billion in 2019.
Southeastern Grocers (SEGR)
Southeastern Grocers, which operates 420 supermarkets under the Winn-Dixie, Harveys, and Fresco y Más names, is an interesting addition to this list because it only emerged from bankruptcy in May 2018. In its S-1, the company says its overall financial performance was hurt by its aggressive expansion from 2011 through 2015, which saw its store base expand by 256%.
Since then, its profitability has improved with the company reporting a net loss of $62 million in the 28 weeks that ended July 10, 2018, only to turn that into net income of $205 million in the 28 weeks that ended July 8, 2020.
Now a leaner organization, Southeastern Grocers is seeking to IPO in 2021 and could raise as much as $500 million.
The future pipeline
While many of these companies are looking to hit the public exchanges in the traditional way, 2020 was a banner year for alternative ways to go public — namely, the SPAC (special purpose acquisition company). Two hundred and forty one SPACs raised $73.4 billion. While household names are likely to pursue a traditional IPO or even a direct listing, those looking for a quicker liquidity option will consider these so-called blank check companies to take them public.
Investors should expect to see alternative means of going public remain prominent in 2021. “Private companies like Paysafe and Opendoor took advantage of the speed and price certainty that the SPAC structure offers during an uncertain market. Now, companies have more options than ever when they pursue a public listing with SPACs and direct listings both emerging as ‘mainstream’ options,” according to pre-IPO marketplace EquityZen.
Aside from the aforementioned five that are almost surely going to go public in 2021, there’s a slew of other hotly anticipated debuts of companies that have become household names. Payments platform Stripe, grocery delivery startup Instacart, stock trading app Robinhood Markets, residential real estate brokerage Compass, dating app Bumble, online education platform Coursera, and fashion players ThredUp and Poshmark are all readying their market debuts.
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Short down to $130
>>> Stripe chases $100bn valuation with no sign of IPO
FinTech Futures
by Ruby Hinchliffe
1st December 2020
https://www.fintechfutures.com/2020/12/stripe-chases-100bn-valuation-with-no-sign-of-ipo/
Stripe, with its last private valuation standing at $36 billion, is reportedly chasing a new valuation of up to $100 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Co-founded by Irish brothers, Patrick and John Collison, Stripe could see its valuation quadruple in just two years.
Its latest funding round – the value of which is yet to be disclosed – follows a $600 million funding round just seven months ago. Stripe’s total money raised to date is almost $2 billion, according to PitchBook data.
But Stripe is still a private company, and there is no talk of it holding an initial public offering (IPO) – prompting speculation that the brothers, worth $4.3 billion each, are putting it off.
The company did, however, hire Dhivya Suryadevara – formerly General Motors – as its new chief financial officer (CFO) this year.
A crazy valuation?
At $100 billion, that would make Stripe the most valuable venture-backed start-up in the US, according to CB Insights.
Axios points out that Chinese firm, ByteDance’s divestment of its majority stake in TikTok had cleared on Friday, which paves the way for Stripe to be a record-breaker.
It is possible that the latest funding won’t happen, or that it will happen, but at a lower valuation.
Regardless, there is logic behind such an inflated valuation for the payments processing software provider.
COVID-19 has caused e-commerce sales to skyrocket, seeing Stripe benefit from the industry’s anticipated 20% growth in 2020. That’s according to IBM’s US Retail Index.
But it’s clear there’s still major room for growth too. Forbes quoted two years ago that less than 10% of global commerce happens online.
Which is why Stripe has since bought Nigerian company, Paystack, for $200 million. It also led a $12 million round for Manila-based PayMongo.
And as its public competitors – Square, PayPal, and Ayden among them – are seeing their stocks as much as double and triple this year, it’s unsurprising that Stripe’s value is in turn driven up.
This year has also continued the trend of Stripe not only serving start-ups, but also working with enterprise industry names.
Zoom, Just Eat, media group NBC and toy-maker Mattel all made the list of new clients. They join the likes of Amazon, Salesforce, Lyft and Instacart.
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>>> It Was a Crazy Week for IPOs. Here Are 9 Things Investors Need to Know.
Barron's
By Eric J. Savitz
Dec. 11, 2020
https://www.barrons.com/articles/ipos-had-a-crazy-week-9-things-investors-need-to-know-51607729309?siteid=yhoof2
It was already a great year for IPOs, but this past week took things to an entirely new level.
DoorDash (ticker: DASH) and Airbnb (ABNB) started the week as private companies last valued at a combined $34 billion. They ended the week as public companies together worth nearly $170 billion. The initial public offerings capture how Covid-19 has fundamentally shifted the economy—and the financial markets.
Here’s what we learned from the historic week.
Growth Is the New Value: Investors are desperate for growth, and they don’t care what it costs. Snowflake (SNOW) is growing 100% a year, a level it can’t possibly sustain. The data warehousing stock has tripled since its own IPO in September, and it’s trading at 100 times next year’s projected revenue, a figure that’s tough to justify.
I recently asked Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman about the inflated valuation. “A stock is worth exactly what somebody wants to pay for it,” he said. “Everything else is just entertainment and conjecture.”
It’s All Guesswork: Wall Street still has no great ability—or desire—to price new issues, which means that IPOs remain a wealth transfer from issuers to institutions. For DoorDash, the original price talk was pegged at $75 to $85 a share. The IPO priced at $102 and opened at $182. That gave DoorDash a value of $70 billion, generating $30 billion for IPO investors—not bad for an overnight gain.
For Airbnb, the original range was $44 to $50 a share. The stock priced at $68 and opened at $142. Airbnb finished its first trading day at $144.71, valuing the company at $100 billion—this time generating more than $50 billion in insta-profits for the IPO buyers.
Smaller, but no less remarkable was the IPO for C3.ai (AI), an artificial-intelligence software company built by Tom Siebel, famous for Siebel Systems, which Oracle acquired in 2006 for $5.6 billion. C3.ai initially expected to price its IPO around $30 to $34. Instead, the stock priced at $42, opened at $100, and closed the week around $120, giving the AI firm a market value of $13 billion. That’s like selling your house for $1 million, and discovering that the buyer flipped it one day later for $3 million.
DoorDash and Airbnb used a new modified auction process intended to eliminate big first-day stock pops. It failed. Jay Ritter, a University of Florida professor who studies the IPO market, says that DoorDash and Airbnb rank among the top five IPOs in terms of dollars left on the table. Also in the top five: the recent IPO for Snowflake.
A Good Week for SoftBank… The SoftBank Vision Fund invested $2 billion in DoorDash, a stake now worth $12 billion; parent SoftBank Group (SFTBY) is trading at a 20-year high. Just over a year ago, SoftBank was reeling from its role as the lead investor in WeWork, which pulled its IPO after a disastrous set of public disclosures. The WeWork moment all but shut down the IPO market in 2019. What a difference a year makes.
...and for Sequoia: Sequoia Capital is the largest investor in Airbnb—with a stake now worth $11.7 billion—and the second-largest investor in DoorDash, with a $9.6 billion stake. Sequoia partner Alfred Lin sits on the boards of both companies. In an interview with Barron’s, Lin said that Sequoia actually passed on a seed investment in DoorDash in 2013. “But we stayed in touch” with CEO Tony Xu, he adds. Sequoia invested in the DoorDash Series A round, and every round after. For now, Sequoia is holding on to all that stock.
The Bulls Don’t Care About Valuation: “I don’t think about valuation on any given day,” Lin told me. “I don’t think the founders of these companies think about valuation…We think about, where are the vectors of growth. How do we continue to win, how do we continue to build increasing advantages for our customers...”
The Case for DoorDash: “Yes, DoorDash is a dominant leader, with 50% market share in food delivery,” Lin says, “but they have only a small fraction of what is spent on restaurant services....And then if they achieve their vision, which is to empower local economies and local merchants, that’s an amazing potential [addressable market].”
The Case for Airbnb: “The travel industry is huge,” Lin says. “There’s travel, and experiences, or you can look at it as unlocking real estate, which is another huge total addressable market. The notion that we can now work from anywhere, study from anywhere. I complain about the small office in my house, and I’m tired of being in front of the same screen, [so] maybe I want to move to a different location....And as I get comfortable with the model, maybe I’ll let someone else rent my house when I’m gone.”
And the Case for C3.ai: “The investment community recognizes there is a huge market in commercial and industrial AI applications,” CEO Tom Siebel told me about his stock’s debut: “We’re looking at a $250 billion addressable software market—that’s bigger than a breadbox.”
There’s More to Come: Even after this year’s IPO wave, there are still more than 500 unicorns—venture-backed companies worth at least $1 billion—in the private market, according to CB Insights. That list includes potential blockbusters like payment platform Stripe, grocery delivery service Instacart, Korean e-commerce giant Coupang, and stock trading platform Robinhood, which has reportedly hired Goldman Sachs to lead its IPO. “We’re in the golden age of venture-capital exits,” says Sandy Miller, general partner at Institutional Venture Partners. “We have a very healthy IPO market and a massive M&A market...there is big supply, and big demand, because the deals have been working.”
But even a big week for IPO’s can’t change one reality: DoorDash and Airbnb were pricey before their IPOs. Now, price isn’t even part of the equation. As we wrote last week: buyers beware.
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DoorDash DASH
EXPECTED OPEN $190 to $195
Sell short one and a half-hour after open.
>>> Siebel-Led C3.ai Exceeds IPO Target to Raise $651 Million
Bloomberg
Katie Roof and Crystal Tse
December 8, 2020
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/siebel-led-c3-ai-exceeds-005254137.html
(Bloomberg) -- C3.ai Inc., the software maker founded by former Oracle Corp. executive Tom Siebel, has priced its initial public offering above the marketed range to to raise $651 million, according to a people familiar with the matter.
The Redwood City, California-based company sold 15.5 million shares Tuesday for $42 apiece after marketing them for $36 to $38, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information wasn’t public yet. Based on the outstanding shares listed in its filings, the company will have a market value of about $4 billion at $42 a share.
A representative for C3.ai didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
C3.ai has said that big name backers including one of its partners, Microsoft Corp., would acquire shares in a private placement as part of the listing.
Spring Creek Capital, an affiliate of Koch Industries, planned to buy $100 million in common stock while Microsoft would buy $50 million of them at the IPO price, according to an earlier filing.
Earlier this year, C3.ai formed a partnership with Microsoft and Adobe Inc. for a new customer-relationship management software seeking to combat Salesforce.com Inc.
C3.ai’s offering is being led by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. The company’s shares are expected to begin trading Wednesday on the the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AI.
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Home > Boards > US Listed > Food - Beverages > DoorDash IPO (DASHIPO)
After opening pop from $102 to $120, short
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After opening pop from $102 to $120, short down to $97
Price per share please. Don't care about market cap.
>>> C3.ai - >>> In 2009, Siebel founded C3.ai, originally to provide enterprise software for energy management.[21] C3.ai currently provides an enterprise AI software platform and applications for multiple commercial uses, including energy management, predictive maintenance, fraud detection, anti-money laundering, inventory optimization, and predictive CRM.[22] Its customers include 3M, Royal Dutch Shell, the US Air Force, and New York Power Authority.[23][24] C3.ai was included in the 2019 “CNBC Disruptor 50” list, with a valuation of $2.1 billion.[25]
Enterprise AI software applies artificial intelligence methods, such as machine learning and neural networks, to solve complex analytical problems in commerce, industry, and government.[26] Organizations use enterprise AI software to increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve operations.[27] The US Air Force, for example, uses AI to predict engine failure in aircraft before a failure occurs in order to improve maintenance and increase aircraft readiness.[24]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Siebel#Siebel_Systems
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C3.ai - >>> Airbnb, DoorDash Boost Price Ranges Ahead of Mega IPO Week
Bloomberg
By Crystal Tse
December 7, 2020
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-07/airbnb-doordash-boost-price-ranges-ahead-of-mega-week-for-ipos
Airbnb valuation may hit $42 billion after pandemic bounceback
Record-setting end to 2020 with U.S. IPOs at December high
Airbnb, DoorDash Headline a Week and Month of Big IPOs
December is set to be the busiest year-end on record for initial public offerings in the U.S., with DoorDash Inc. and Airbnb Inc. ready to start trading this week in long-awaited listings.
The two startups, which are aiming to raise a combined $6.2 billion at the top of their price ranges, will propel the month’s IPO volume to all-time high, surpassing the $8.3 billion mark set in December of both 2001 and 2003, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. IPOs on U.S. exchanges have already raised a record $156 billion this year, the data show.
Both listings got an additional boost as the companies headed into the final stretch of marketing their shares. Airbnb increased the price range of its IPO in an updated prospectus on Monday, after DoorDash upped its own price range in a Friday filing. Airbnb will be valued at as much as $42 billion at the top end of the revised range. The elevated price targets put both companies among the five biggest U.S. IPOs of 2020.
Increasing the price range usually implies that the offering is being well-received among investors and demand is high. Companies are allowed to price their IPO shares up to 20% above the revised range without having to refile with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Private companies that sat out the market chaos in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic -- and were awaiting a final outcome in the U.S. election -- are now rushing to go public. Airbnb and DoorDash will quickly be followed by three other mega-listings that could add billions of dollars to the IPO tally.
Also on deck to go public this month are Affirm Holdings Inc., which lets online shoppers pay for purchases such as Peloton bikes in installments and online video-game company Roblox Corp. Both are likely to attain a valuation of tens of billions of dollars in its listing.
ContextLogic Inc., the parent of online retailer Wish, launched its share sale on Monday. It’s aiming to raise as much as $1.1 billion at a fully diluted valuation of $17 billion, its amended prospectus shows.
“This group of companies that you have coming out now maybe weren’t thought of initially as benefiting, but they’ve been able to show very strong results despite the coronavirus,” said Karen Snow, head of East Coast listings at Nasdaq Inc.
Airbnb is aiming to be valued at as much as $42 billion in its IPO, while DoorDash could hit a valuation of about $35 billion, based on their updated price ranges. For DoorDash, that’s more than double the private valuation it hit in a June fundraising round, after it seized on the pandemic-fueled boom in demand for meals brought to your door. Airbnb had been valued at $18 billion in April after raising additional debt to shore up its finances. The company, which was initially hit hard by global travel restrictions, has more recently seen a boom in customers seeking longer-term, domestic rentals.
COMPANY FUNDRAISING AT TOP END IPO VALUATION STATUS
DoorDash $3.1 billion $35 billion at top of range
Pricing Dec. 8,
Trading Dec. 9
Airbnb $3.1 billion $42 billion at top of range
Pricing Dec. 9,
Trading Dec. 10
C3.ai $527 million $3.29 billion (appx.)
Pricing Dec. 8,
Trading Dec. 9
ContextLogic (Wish) $1.1 billion $17 billion at top of range
Pricing Dec. 15,
Trading Dec 16,
Affirm TBD TBD Filed publicly
Roblox TBD TBD Filed publicly
Airbnb’s IPO will also be a lucrative event for many of its employees. The company has offered billions of dollars worth of stock compensation to staff, similar to Uber Technologies Inc. and other large venture-backed companies that have gone public. The IPO will make some of its longtime employees millionaires on paper.
Time and Cash
Earlier this year, technology IPOs were dominated by enterprise software companies such as Snowflake Inc., which has soared more than 200% since its listing to a $110 billion public market valuation. This month’s cluster of soon-to-be public entities -- all based in the San Francisco Bay Area -- cater to consumers stuck at home with extra time and cash on their hands.
Should the listings go well, it could signal investors are optimistic about an economic rebound after the dark days of the pandemic.
“There’s a lot of support and interest from institutional investors for companies that are impacted by Covid because the feeling is that they will recover,” said Neil Kell, Bank of America Corp.’s vice chairman of global equity capital markets.
“The mindset is not that we’re in December of 2020,” he said. “The mindset is how is it going to look a year from now.”
One enterprise software listing is also planned for this week. C3.ai Inc., founded by former Oracle Corp. executive Tom Siebel, is expected to raise as much as $527 million in its IPO.
Gauging Demand
Bankers are using new methods to execute these large share sales, incorporating technology under development for years that was well-timed for use during the pandemic, when potential buyers can’t meet the company executives and advisers in person.
Airbnb, DoorDash and Roblox have asked prospective IPO investors to fill in their deal orders via an online portal, indicating their level of interest at any desired price, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.
The new process is aimed at helping issuers and their advisers gauge demand, especially for high-growth companies subject to wide differences in valuation among investors, the people said. The final price and share allocation are still determined by the seller.
Representatives for the companies declined to comment.
Unity Software Inc., used the same system in its September IPO. Unity sold its shares for $52 each and ended its first day of trading at $68.35. The shares closed Friday at $150.94 apiece.
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Is Figs headed for an IPO and will their legal issues be a problem?
Medical scrubs startup Figs gears up for $4B IPO amid legal battle: Sources
>>> China Halts Ant’s Record IPO, Throwing Ma’s Empire Into Turmoil
Bloomberg
By Lulu Yilun Chen and Richard Frost
November 3, 2020
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-03/ant-group-says-hong-kong-ipo-also-suspended
Shanghai exchange cites ‘major issues’ when suspending debut
Ma was called into a meeting with top regulators on Monday
China Stops Jack Ma’s $35 Billion Ant IPO From Going Forward
It was heralded as China’s answer to JPMorgan -- a homegrown financial giant on the cusp of the biggest stock-market debut the world has ever seen.
Instead, with billions on the line and an initial public offering all but sealed, Chinese authorities have abruptly thrown into doubt the future of Ant Group Co. and its celebrated founder, the billionaire Jack Ma.
Only days before the financial-technology juggernaut was to go public in Shanghai and Hong Kong -- a coup for China’s financial markets that once would have been unimaginable -- the $35 billion IPO was halted on Tuesday after Ma, China’s richest man, was summoned by regulators. In an extraordinary turn of events, authorities announced that they had belatedly discovered an array of shortcomings that, by some accounts, might require the sprawling Ant to be overhauled.
The move upends what had been one of China’s biggest business success stories, as well as what was to be a pivotal step in the development of the nation’s fast-growing capital markets.
“It’s definitely surprising,” said Mike Bailey, director of research at FBB Capital Partners. “If there is something strange going on on the macro side for China’s financial markets or in the company, that would be worrisome.”
In just a decade, Ant, an affiliate of Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., has exploded into the world’s largest financial technology company, reshaping the lives of many ordinary Chinese. But its ascendance -- and Ma’s growing global reputation -- has also posed a threat to China’s state-run lenders and their political benefactors.
Tuesday’s developments left bankers and global investors groping for answers. The immediate fate of the many billions already tied up in the IPO is for now uncertain. Reaction in the financial market was swift, with Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares falling and futures on Hong Kong’s benchmark also declining.
Changes Needed
Chinese authorities didn’t give much detail about the issues behind the suspension, beyond saying that the much-anticipated debut couldn’t go ahead because there had been “significant change” in the regulatory environment.
The company will have to make changes that include capital increases at its lucrative micro-lending units, according to people familiar with the matter. It will also have to reapply for licenses for the units to operate nationwide, the people added, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.
Ant, which spun out of Alibaba in 2010, has long been seen as a champion of China’s economy and an example of how the Communist Party has allowed entrepreneurs -- especially in the technology sector -- to flourish within its top-down political system. Tuesday’s setback may cast a pall over the country’s financial markets, even as President Xi Jinping tries to create stock exchanges that can rival the U.S.
“Ant Group sincerely apologizes to you for any inconvenience caused by this development,” the company said in a message to investors. “We will properly handle the follow-up matters in accordance with applicable regulations of the two stock exchanges.”
There were warning signs on Monday when Ma was summoned to a rare joint meeting with the People’s Bank of China and three other top financial regulators and told his firm would face increased scrutiny and be subject to the same restrictions on capital and leverage similar to banks.
“This further reinforces the regulatory pressures building on tech giants,” said Nader Naeimi, head of dynamic markets at AMP Capital Investors Ltd. in Sydney. “It’s good news for banks, bad news for Jack Ma,” he said, referring to the competitive threat Ant poses for traditional lenders.
The company’s debut was expected for Thursday. Alibaba, which owns about a third of Ant and is listed in the U.S., tumbled 6.8% at 12:44 p.m. in New York.
Record IPO
The IPO was on pace to break records. It had attracted at least $3 trillion of orders from individual investors for its dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and in the preliminary price consultation of its Shanghai IPO, institutional investors subscribed for over 76 billion shares, more than 284 times the initial offering tranche.
Chinese fintech giant could have set IPO record
The fintech company’s IPO would have given it a market value of about $315 billion based on filings, bigger than JPMorgan Chase & Co. and four times larger than Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
But Ant has faced scrutiny in Chinese state media in recent days after Ma criticized local and global regulators for stifling innovation and not paying sufficient heed to development and opportunities for the young. At a Shanghai conference late last month, he compared the Basel Accords, which set out capital requirements for banks, to a club for the elderly.
And over the weekend, at a meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Committee led by Vice Premier Liu He, officials stressed the need for fintech firms to be regulated.
Ant dominates China’s payments market via the Alipay app. It also runs the giant Yu’ebao money-market fund and the country’s largest online consumer-lending platform. Other businesses include a credit-scoring unit and an insurance marketplace.
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>>> Datto Stock Jumps 20% in Market Debut Before Falling Back
Barron's
By Luisa Beltram
Oct. 21, 2020
https://www.barrons.com/articles/software-stock-set-to-trade-after-the-ipo-prices-at-the-top-of-the-range-51603291999?siteid=yhoof2
Datto provides business-continuity software, including backup and disaster recovery.
Shares of Datto Holding rose as much as 20% in its first day of trading.
The stock opened at $32 Wednesday and hit a high of $32.36. Shares recently changed hands at $28.05, up 3.9%, in afternoon trading.
Datto’s (ticker: MSP) decent performance comes after the backup-software company collected roughly $550 million late Tuesday. The company sold 22 million shares at $27 each, the top of its $24-$27 price range.
Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Barclays, and Credit Suisse are underwriters on the deal.
Datto is the latest software company to go public. Both Asana (ASAN), which offers cloud-based project-management software, and Snowflake (SNOW), a cloud software company, made their debuts in late September. McAfee, the cybersecurity company, is expected to price its offering Wednesday night and begin trading on Thursday.
Founded in 2007, Datto provides business-continuity software, including backup and disaster recovery, that helps companies secure their data. Datto’s software is delivered through a managed-service-provider, or MSP, channel to small and medium-size businesses. The company had 17,000 MSP partners as of June 30, according to its prospectus. Datto said it helped restore more than 200 million software as a service objects in 2020, the prospectus said.
The company reported $10.1 million in profit for the six months ended June 30 on $249.1 million in revenue. This compares with $25.7 million in losses a year earlier on $215 million in revenue. Long-term debt stood at $577 million as of June 30. It has 1,653 employees as of June 30.
With 157,548,740 shares outstanding, Datto has a roughly $4.3 billion market cap, at $27 a share.
Vista Equity Partners acquired Datto in 2017 for $1.3 billion and merged the company with Autotask. Vista will own 70.7% of Datto after the IPO, while Austin McChord, Datto’s founder, will have 13%.
The Datto IPO comes just days since Robert Smith, Vista’s CEO, reached a $140 million settlement with the Justice Department, The Wall Street Journal reported. The nonprosecution agreement ends a yearslong U.S. tax investigation and calls for Smith to admit tax fraud as well as not properly filing foreign bank account reports, according to the Journal.
No Vista entity is part of Smith’s settlement with the DOJ, which is considered a personal tax matter, Barron’s has learned. Neither Vista, nor any of its funds or portfolio companies, were involved or of interest or under investigation by the DOJ, Barron’s has learned.
Brian Sheth, Vista’s president and co-founder, is now looking to leave the firm, Barron’s has learned. The executive has been with Vista since he was 23 years old. Sheth has wanted to retire for some time but had to wait until Smith signed the nonprosecution agreement with the DOJ, Barron’s has learned. The timing of Sheth’s departure is unclear. He has noncompete and nonsolicitation agreements with Vista and with Dyal Capital Partners, which owns a minority of Vista, Barron’s has learned.
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Datto Holding (MSP) - >>> Could This IPO Be the Next Shopify?
Datto is on a mission to bring big IT to small and medium businesses. Here's what investors should look for.
Motley Fool
by PT Lathrop
Oct 30, 2020
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/10/30/could-this-ipo-be-the-next-shopify/
Investors have seen time and again how some platforms can turn small businesses into big profits. Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) was a pioneer in helping small businesses establish themselves online, and its stock has soared more than 3,000% over the last five years. Square (NYSE:SQ) cut its teeth by empowering small business with payment systems and services. Now meet Datto (NYSE:MSP), which went public on Oct. 21 with a mission to bring big IT solutions to small and medium businesses (SMBs). Unlike many recent IPOs, the company just turned profitable . Here are three key indicators that could give investors confidence that Datto's story and stock has a bright future.
1. Landing more MSPs
Datto's ticker, MSP, is an homage to its unique strategy. SMBs often can't manage their own information technology needs. Imagine you own a local chain of bakeries, or a dentistry practice. You want to access and protect your and your customers' data easily, but you didn't acquire networking and cybersecurity skills at culinary or dental school. Additionally, your business may not be big enough to invest in your own IT department, with multiple contracts from multiple vendors.
For these reasons, many small businesses turn to "managed service providers," or MSPs, essentially one-stop shops that provide IT solutions. The total addressable market here is very big and growing. According to Datto's S-1 filing, SMBs spend $159 billion on IT annually. We can reasonably expect that figure to keep growing, since all businesses need software, data storage, and security. 125,000 MSPs currently manage about 10% of that market .
Datto offers a data storage and security platform to MSPs, which they in turn can offer their customers. This model allows Datto's customers more efficiency, since they can consolidate much of their work onto Datto's platform. It also allows MSPs to focus more of their time on growing their business relationships, rather than getting bogged down troubleshooting: They have Datto for that. Essentially, Datto is the MSP for MSPs.
This strategy seems to be paying off. Datto currently has 17,000 MSP customers. That's a nice diverse customer base and healthy 14% of the market. A growing market also invites growing competition. If Datto is going to be a multibagger from its current $4.4 billion market cap, it needs to not only keep market share, but also grow its market share
2. Expanding with MSPs
Datto has shown its ability to grow relationships so far. Its S-1 filing shows a dollar-based net retention rate of 115% for the 12 months ending June 30, 2020 and 119% in the previous fiscal year. For comparison, the more enterprise-focused cloud storage company, Box, recently reported a 106% net retention rate for the year ending July 31, 2020. . Datto has a three-pronged approach to growing revenues with existing MSP partners.
The first involves helping MSPs get Datto services to even more SMB customers. Datto invests heavily into this initiative. If offers a wide variety of tools, from books to videos, that help MSPs with marketing, pricing, customer service, and even hiring. Datto prices its technology to MSPs in tiers, and as the MSPs expand or bring new business into the Datto ecosystem, it can push them into higher pricing tiers . More on this later.
The second opportunity is to offer more solutions to the MSP business. One key product here is Datto's "Autotask Professional Services Automation," (PSA) -- essentially, software that helps MSPs triage, assign, and track workflow. There is plenty of competition in this arena as well. Datto has a bit of network effect going for it: If an MSP is already tied into the Datto platform for its customers, it might be more likely to use Datto's PSA software as well.
The third growth driver lies in expanding Datto's solutions for SMBs. The company's current focus is backup and recovery service, helping that imaginary dental office access your records even when their systems crash. That's a smart place to start, since different businesses all share that same need. For Datto to grow into a megacap cloud king, investors should look for new successful products and services for SMBs, additional business solutions for MSPs, and that net retention rate to stay above 100% for the foreseeable future.
3. Top line, bottom line
Since 94% of Datto's revenue comes from subscriptions, the company tends to highlight its annual run-rate revenue, the yearly value of all its current subscriptions . Whether investors chose to use that metric or the slightly more inclusive net revenue, they should hope for some acceleration in top-line growth. Datto grew its year-over-year subscription revenue nearly 20% for the six months ending June 30.
That kind of revenue growth is great ... unless you're a cloud software company. Other companies in the broader industry are posting revenue growth rates of 65% and even 121% . Granted, those companies, JFrog and Snowflake, come at much higher premiums. Nonetheless, if Datto is going to grow to be the dominant cloud services provider for SMBs through their network of MSPs, it may need get those network effects compounding and grow revenue above 19%.
Datto has not garnered as much media attention as other IPOs. That might work in investors' favor. Small companies will continue to need more and more technology solutions to compete. Most small businesses will look to their local MSP partners. If Datto emerges as the top dog in this space in the long term, its potential could easily turn this $4 billion company into a 10-bagger.
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>>> Datto Holding Corp. (MSP) provides cloud-based software and technology solutions for delivery through the managed service provider (MSP) channel to small and medium businesses in the United States and internationally. Its Unified Continuity products include Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery that protects servers and workstations, and minimize downtime; Cloud Continuity, an image-based continuity solution for Windows-based laptops and desktops; SaaS Protection, an automated and secure backup and restoration product; Workplace, a cloud-hosted file sync and share solution, which enable end-users to synchronize files across platforms, including mobile devices; and File Protection, an MSP-managed secure and scalable backup product that enables MSPs to protect and recover files and folders on workstations and laptops. The company's networking Products comprise access points, switches, edge routers, and managed power devices. Its business management products that consists of Autotask Professional Services Automation, an IT business management product; and remote monitoring and management. The company was formerly known as Merritt Topco, Inc. and changed its name to Datto Holding Corp. in January 2020. Datto Holding Corp. was incorporated on 2017 and is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut.
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>>> Array Technologies (ARRY) stock surges in public debut, as solar company is valued at $2.8 billion at IPO price
MarketWatch
Oct. 15, 2020
By Tomi Kilgore
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/array-technologies-stock-surges-in-public-debut-as-solar-company-is-valued-at-28-billion-at-ipo-price-2020-10-15?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo
Shares of Array Technologies Inc. ARRY, 7.26% charged out of the gate, as the first trade was 34% above where the upsized initial public offering priced. A total of 47.5 million shares were sold in the IPO, as the New Mexico-based maker of ground-mounting systems used in solar energy projects sold 7 million shares to raise $154 million and a selling shareholder sold 40.5 million shares. The IPO priced at $22, above the top of the expected range of $19 to $21. With about 127.0 million shares outstanding, the IPO pricing valued the company at about $2.79 billion. The selling shareholder, a parent entity of the company controlled by Oaktree Capital, has increased the amount it planned to sell a number of times, starting at 26.75 million shares on Oct. 7, to 38.00 million shares on Oct. 13 and to 40.50 million shares late Wednesday. For the six months ended June 30, the company recorded net income of $76.1 million on revenue of $552.6 million, after a net loss of $5.2 million on revenue of $255.4 million in the same period a year ago. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Guggenheim Securities and Morgan Stanley were the lead underwriters. The company went public at a time of good demand for IPOs, as the Renaissance IPO ETF IPO, 0.61% has rallied 28.7% over the past three months while the S&P 500 SPX, 0.55% has gained 7.3%.
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>>> Array Technologies, Inc. (ARRY) provides solar tracking solutions and services for utility-scale projects. Its products include DuraTrack HZ v3, a single-axis solar tracking system; and SmarTrack, a machine learning software that automatically adjusts module angles in response to weather and site conditions. The company was founded in 1989 and is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico with additional offices in Europe, Central America, and Australia. <<<
If you see any activity please post on the SPAC board.
Quote:
The Forest Road Company's SPAC Forest Road Acquisition files for a $250 million IPO
Shaquille O'Neal, former Disney executives, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s son target $250 million SPAC launch
October 8, 2020
FRX.U
Forest Road Acquisition, a blank check company formed by Forest Road targeting TMT businesses, filed on Thursday with the SEC to raise up to $250 million in an initial public offering.
The New York, NY-based company plans to raise $250 million by offering 25 million units at $10. Each unit consists of one share of common stock and one-third of a warrant, exercisable $11.50. At the proposed price, Forest Road Acquisition would command a market value of $313 million.
The company is led by CEO and Director Keith Horn, founder and managing member of investment advisory firm Loring Capital Advisors, and Chairman and CIO Zachary Tarica, founder and CEO of specialty financing firm Forest Road. Forest Road Acquisition plans to target the TMT industry, with specific focus on the new audience aggregation platforms transforming the TMT landscape, premium intellectual property driving significant value expansion, and other broad themes.
Forest Road Acquisition was founded in 2020 and plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol FRX.U. Cantor Fitzgerald is the sole bookrunner on the deal.
Forest Road Acquisition Filed Terms, NYSE: FRX.U
Blank check company formed by Forest Road targeting TMT businesses.
Industry: SPAC
FRX.U
We are a blank check company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination. We currently intend to concentrate our efforts on identifying businesses in the technology, media, and telecommunications (“TMT”) space that align with the following macro themes: new audience aggregation platforms transforming the TMT landscape; premium intellectual property (“IP”) driving significant value expansion; consumer behavior fundamentally changing; cutting-edge technologies facilitating new offerings; evolving ecosystem reshaping traditional business models; and companies in need of capital due to idiosyncratic market conditions. We will seek to capitalize on the significant experience, relationships, and contacts of our officers and directors, The Forest Road Company, the managing member of our Sponsor (“Forest Road”), and strategic advisors to complete our initial business combination. We believe that our team’s distinguished and long-term track record of sourcing, acquiring, and building next-generation media and entertainment platforms, along with other investments and operational experience in consumer-facing industries, will provide us with differentiated consumer insights and sourcing opportunities.
IPO News for Forest Road Acquisition
The Forest Road Company's SPAC Forest Road Acquisition files for a $250 million IPO 10/08/20
IPO Data
IPO File Date 10/08/2020
Price Range $10.00 - $10.00
Offer Shares (mm) 25.0
Deal Size $mm) $250
Lock-Up Date IPO Pro Only
Street Research IPO Pro Only
Underwriters
Cantor Fitzgerald
Guggenheim Securities
Company Data
Headquarters New York, NY
Founded 2020
Employees 4
Websitewww.forestroadco.com
IPO Market Benchmark (IPOUSA)
It's official. Airbnb IPO.
>>> Defiance ETFs Launches First SPAC ETF
Yahoo Finance
October 1, 2020
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/defiance-etfs-launches-first-spac-170000991.html
SPACs give emerging companies both flexibility and control, while investors finally have open access to some of the biggest investment deals in the market. Expanding on this concept, Defiance ETFs has announced the launch of the first SPAC ETF, the Defiance Next Gen SPAC Derived ETF (SPAK), which is now available for trading. SPAK tracks the Indxx SPAC & NextGen IPO Index.
SPACs are companies with no commercial operations that are established solely to raise capital from investors for the purpose of acquiring one or more operating businesses. SPAK joins Defiance’s growing suite of first-mover thematic ETFs, including (FIVG) (5G ETF) and (IBBJ) (Junior Biotech ETF).
“The Defiance team is excited to bring to market the first SPAC ETF (NYSE: SPAK). Picking the winners of individual SPACs can be very difficult, however, the ETF structure allows investors to access the most liquid SPAC IPOs in a diversified basket. SPAK allows both financial advisors and retail investors to participate in an IPO private equity style of investing, which until now, was only available to large financial institutions,” a statement issued by Defiance ETFs earlier this morning.
Regarding the index, the Indxx SPAC & NextGen IPO Index is a passive rules-based index that tracks the performance of the common stock of newly listed Special Purpose Acquisitions Corporations (“SPACs”), ex-warrants, and initial public offerings (“IPOs”) derived from Special Purpose Acquisitions Corporations.
Why Invest in SPACS?
Elaborating more on why investors can look to SPACS, the IPO process is institutionalized, cumbersome, and inflexible, especially in adapting to the Covid-19 reality where virtual roadshows are less effective, and uncertainty is rife. With SPAC, there’s an alternative route for a company to go public, which can be cheaper, quicker, more transparent, and involves agreements and processes more within the purview and control of the company.
SPACs have grown in popularity as they increasingly attract high-worth, credible sponsors. As the quality of their founders and the success of their merger companies grow, so does their integrity in the wider investment community. So far in 2020, SPACs have raised $22.5 billion to spend on deals, exceeding the record $13.6 billion raised in 2019.
Delving deeper into the SPAK ETF, picking the winners of individual SPACs can be very difficult, however, the ETF structure allows investors to access the most liquid SPAC IPOs in a diversified basket. SPAK allows both financial advisors and retail investors to participate in an IPO private equity style of investing which is usually only available to large financial institutions. The ETF currently has 29 holdings, rebalanced on a quarterly basis. An 80% weighting is applied to IPO companies derived from SPACs and 20% is allocated to common stock of newly listed Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”), ex-warrants. Newly IPO companies derived from SPACs will be screened monthly and SPACs quarterly.
SPAK is distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC. For more information, visit https://www.defianceetfs.com/
This article originally appeared on ETFTrends.com.
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>>> Snowflake Stock Is at Risk of a ‘Violent Selloff.’ Why One Analyst Is Worried.
Barron's
By Eric J. Savitz
Sept. 21, 2020
https://www.barrons.com/articles/snowflake-shares-risk-violent-selloff-analyst-says-setting-sell-rating-51600705017?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo
Snowflake shares are in bubble territory and at risk of a sharp reversal, the first analyst to pick up coverage of the newly public cloud data analytics company warned on Monday.
Snowflake (ticker: SNOW) made a spectacular debut in the public market last week, setting an initial offering price of $120 a share, then more than doubling on the first day trading to $253.93, after briefly trading as high as $319. But as we noted in this weekend’s Tech Trader column, the huge run has pushed the company’s valuation to unsustainable heights.
Srini Nandury, an analyst with the small investment research firm Summit Insights Group, this morning picked up coverage of the stock with a Sell rating and $175 price target.
Nandury confirms what we said in the column: Snowflake is “the most expensive name in all tech.” He also contends that Snowflake’s software offers “limited differentiation” from competing products like Amazon Redshift, Google Big Query, and Azure SQL Database. He also notes that there are many legacy data warehouse vendors, including IBM Netezza, Oracle (ORCL), SAP (SAP), and Teradata (TDC), all of which offer cloud products of their own.
“With the uncertain macro environment, Snowflake is at risk of a violent selloff,” he writes. “We believe multiple compression is inevitable.” He estimates the stock is trading at 76 times next 12 months sales, compared with 41 times for Zoom Video Communications (ZM), 32 times for Datadog (DDOG), and 31 times for Shopify (SHOP).
The analyst projects revenue growth of 117% for the January 2021 fiscal year to $574 million, with growth slowing to 40% by fiscal 2025.
He also notes that the first lockup expiration on the stock is Dec. 15, when 11.3 million more shares will be eligible for sale. He thinks a secondary offering is likely.
“For the stock to work from the current levels, Snowflake needs to execute flawlessly quarter after quarter, and has to live up to lofty expectations and grow into its valuation,” Nandury writes. “While Snowflake’s management is stellar and is known for its execution, the odds of Snowflake’s stock faltering are high.”
He concludes: “The stock is clearly in the bubble territory.”
Snowflake shares on Monday were down 4.3%, to $229.63. Other recent IPOs, including JFrog (FROG), Unity Software (U), and Sumo Logic (SUMO) were all showing more modest losses. <<<
>>> Snowflake Inc. (SNOW) provides cloud-based data platform in the United States and internationally. The company's platform enables customers to consolidate data into a single source of truth to drive meaningful business insights, build data-driven applications, and share data. Its platform is used by various organizations of various sizes in a range of industries. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.
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Compass Pathways (CMPS) - >>> The First Psychedelic Drug Stock Jumps In Debut After Upsized IPO
Investor's Business Daily
by BILL PETERS
09/18/2020
https://www.investors.com/news/compass-pathways-sees-544-million-valuation-first-psychedelic-drugs-ipo/?src=A00220&yptr=yahoo
Compass Pathways (CMPS) jumped in its first day of trading on Friday, making it the first psychedelic drug company to go public on a big U.S. exchange.
Shares surged 42% to 24.09 in the stock market today, giving the company a market cap of more than $800 million. The debut comes a day after the company announced an upsized pricing for its IPO.
The London-based company, which is researching a therapy using the main ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms, said in a release late Thursday that its IPO priced at $17 a share, up from initial expectations for $14-$16 announced earlier in the week.
Compass said it sold 7.5 million American Depositary Shares in the offering, for total proceeds of $127.5 million. That was also above the 6.7 million planned. Each of the 7.5 million American Depositary Shares represented 7.5 ordinary shares in the offering.
The company has also granted the underwriters of its IPO a 30-day option to buy an additional 1,125,000 American Depositary Shares, up from 1,005,000 initially.
Compass Pathways filed for the IPO late last month. Cowen, Evercore ISI and Berenberg were the joint book-running managers for the Compass Pathways IPO. Canaccord Genuity, already an active deal maker in the cannabis industry, is the lead manager.
The psychedelic drugs industry has been put into the spotlight over the past year, as more investors pour their money into startups promising treatments for a range of mental illnesses.
With that trend have come concerns about a repeat of the cannabis industry's boom and bust. Most existing drugs in the industry — like LSD, MDMA and psilocybin — aren't yet legal or patentable.
Compass Pathways' COMP360 Therapy
The company, in a filing on Monday, said would have around 34 million shares outstanding after the offering, or 35 million if the underwriters fully exercise the option. That could give the company a valuation of nearly $600 million.
Compass Pathways has developed a crystalline form of psilocybin, called COMP360, for which it has a U.S. patent. Psychedelic drug developers, if they want to be profitable, will likely have to develop novel drug compounds and drug-delivery methods, a path similar to the legal pharmaceutical industry.
The drug developer plans to use COMP360 in conjunction with therapy for treatment-resistant depression. If regulators approve, Compass plans to market it to clinics and health care providers in the U.S. and Europe.
The FDA in 2018 gave breakthrough status to COMP360. Last year, the agency also approved the Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) drug Spravato, which uses a derivative of ketamine, for treatment-resistant depression. This summer, the FDA approved Spravato for people who are actively suicidal.
Ketamine — perhaps best known as a party drug — is regularly used, legally, as an anesthetic. Therapists also use ketamine for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
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New board. This is where it is at. I could use someone to add content.
Home > Boards > Free Zone > User's Groups > IPO PDO and SPAC board
Trying to find a source for information, upcoming DPO's.
Unity Technologies
Ticker: NYSE (U)
Filing date:
IPO date:
Snowflake
Ticker: XNOW
Filing date: Aug 24th
IPO date:
Asana
Ticker: SANA
IPO date:
JFrog
Ticker: FROG
IPO date:
Corsair Gaming
Ticker: CRSR
IPO date:
Sumo Logic
Ticker: SUMO
Filing date: Aug 24th
IPO date:
Palantir Tech
Ticker: PLTR
Filing date: July 6th
IPO date: late September
AirBNB
IPO date:
Bentley Systems
Ticker: BSY
IPO date:
Amwell (American Well)
Ticker: AMWL
IPO date:
Unity Technologies
Ticker: NYSE (U)
Filing date:
IPO date:
Snowflake
Ticker:
Filing date: Aug 24th
IPO date:
Asana
JFrog
Sumo Logic
Ticker:
Filing date: Aug 24th
Palantir
Ticker:
Filing date: July 6th
IPO date: late September
AirBNB
>>> Palantir Plans Direct Listing for Late September
Bloomberg
By Lizette Chapman and Scott Deveau
August 12, 2020
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-13/palantir-is-said-to-plan-direct-listing-for-late-september?srnd=premium
Palantir Technologies Inc. is planning to go public through a direct listing of its shares in late September, according to people familiar with the matter.
The company, which sells data analysis software used by governments and large companies worldwide, might still change its plans, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information wasn’t public.
A company spokeswoman declined to comment.
A direct listing would allow the company’s current investors to sell their shares on the first day of trading rather than having to wait for a lock-up period to expire, as would be required in a traditional initial public offering. Unlike an IPO, though, the company doesn’t raise capital in a direct listing.
Palantir is in the process of raising $961 million, $550 million of which it has already secured, according to a July filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That includes a $500 million investment from Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Holdings Inc. and $50 million from Fujitsu Ltd.
Those sums make listing the stock directly a more accessible path for Palantir, following in the footsteps of Spotify Technology SA and Slack Technologies Inc.
Billionaire Peter Thiel founded Palantir in 2003 with a group of business partners including Alex Karp, the chief executive officer. In 2015, Palantir reached a valuation of $20 billion, though in recent years stockholders have sold blocks of shares for much less.
The company told investors this year that it expects to break even in 2020 on revenue of about $1 billion.
In June, Palantir added three directors including the first woman to serve on its board, former Wall Street Journal reporter Alexandra Wolfe Schiff.
Dozens of law enforcement and government agencies around the world use Palantir to compile and search for data on citizens with the intent of combating crime, hunting terrorists and, in recent months, tracking the spread of Covid-19. The pandemic has boosted business as companies use its products to help determine how to reopen.
Palantir is controversial for the way its tools have been used by some to enable surveillance and compromise privacy. Its use by police and immigration officials, in particular, has sparked numerous protests.
The Palo Alto, California-based company had long resisted a public offering to avoid getting valued as a consultancy, and to stay out of the public eye while it reduced its dependence on engineers customizing software for each client and worked toward profitability, people familiar with the matter have said.
The company said in a statement in July that it had filed with the SEC for a “public listing” of its stock, wording that has been used by other companies planning to pursue a direct listing instead of an IPO.
Palantir’s funders include Founders Fund, the venture capital firm started by Thiel. Other investors include Morgan Stanley, BlackRock Inc. and Tiger Global Management.
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>>> Palantir Technologies Files to Go Public
The data start-up, which has a valuation of $20 billion, would be the largest Silicon Valley tech listing since Uber made its debut last year.
Alex Karp, chief executive of Palantir Technologies, founded the data company in 2003 with the investor Peter Thiel and others.
NY Times
By Erin Griffith
July 6, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/technology/palantir-technologies-ipo.html#:~:text=SAN%20FRANCISCO%20%E2%80%94%20Palantir%20Technologies%2C%20a,made%20its%20debut%20last%20year.
SAN FRANCISCO — Palantir Technologies, a Silicon Valley data start-up, said on Monday that it had filed to go public, setting up one of the largest public listings of a technology start-up since Uber made its debut last year.
Palantir is one of the tech industry’s most valuable private companies, with a valuation of $20 billion. Founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Joe Lonsdale, Nathan Gettings, Stephen Cohen and Alex Karp, who is its chief executive, the company began working with governments, law enforcement and the defense industry to analyze and process their data, but has expanded into other areas.
Palantir has attracted more than $3 billion in venture capital funding from investors including In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the Central Intelligence Agency; Founders Fund, Mr. Thiel’s investment firm; Fidelity; and Tiger Global Management.
Despite persistent speculation about its prospects as a public company, Palantir had avoided listing its shares, in part because of the secretive nature of its business. A public listing would reveal a fuller picture of Palantir’s work, particularly with government agencies, for the first time.
“The minute companies go public, they are less competitive,” Mr. Karp said in 2014.
More recently, Palantir has taken steps to prepare for a listing. California requires companies to have one woman on their boards in order to go public, and in June, Palantir added its first, Alexandra Wolfe Schiff, a former Wall Street Journal reporter. Spencer Rascoff, a tech executive, and Alexander Moore, an early Palantir employee, joined the board as well.
If completed, the listing will be part of a wave of tech initial public offerings. New offerings had dried up in recent months because of volatility caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But in June, with the stock market booming again and some companies in a position to benefit from changes in consumer behavior, the I.P.O.s came back in full force.
Shares of recent listings have soared. Last week, shares of Lemonade, an insurance start-up, more than doubled on their first day of trading. Investors also embraced the I.P.O.s of the car sales start-up Vroom and the sales software company ZoomInfo.
Airbnb, the $31 billion home rental platform, whose business has been pummeled by the lack of travel during the pandemic, has also not ruled out going public this year.
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>>> Vroom Soars on Its IPO. Here Are 5 Things You Need to Know About the Used Car Disruptor
The latest market debutante is chasing a $400 billion opportunity.
Motley Fool
by Jeremy Bowman
Jun 10, 2020
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/06/10/vroom-soars-on-its-ipo-here-are-5-things-you-need.aspx
After a pause during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the IPO market is heating up again, and a smashing debut from Vroom (NASDAQ:VRM) Tuesday proved investors are hungry for new issues.
Shares of the online used car seller skyrocketed on opening day, more than doubling from its $22 IPO price, reaching a valuation around $5 billion. After seeing shares of fellow online car dealer Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) soar in recent years, investors are clearly excited for Vroom to hit the market. Should you take a ride with the used car debutante? Keep reading to see five things you need to know about the company before you decide whether to buy.
1. Vroom has a massive opportunity
The used car market is the single largest consumer product category in the U.S., making up $841 billion in annual sales last year, ahead of $683 billion in grocery sales and $636 billion in new car sales. In 2019, Americans bought about 40 million used cars.
The industry is also highly fragmented, making it ripe for disruption. Today, there are more than 42,000 dealers, millions of peer-to-peer transactions, and no single party owns more than 2% of the market. Brick-and-mortar chain Carmax is considered the market leader with nearly 2%. Consumers also dislike the traditional used car-buying experience, as 81% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the process in a survey from Dealersocket.
That sets up a great opportunity for online disruptors like Vroom, as the online used car market its expected to grow from just a 0.9% share of the total market currently, which is one of the lowest e-commerce penetration rate in a consumer category, to as much as 50% by 2030. If that forecast comes to fruition, Vroom will be looking at a $400 billion addressable market in just a decade, an appealing opportunity for a company that generated less than $1.2 billion in revenue in 2019.
2. Its core business is seeing triple-digit growth
Vroom's business is made up of three separate segments: e-commerce, Texas Direct Auto (TDA), and wholesale. TDA came to the business through a strategic acquisition in 2015 that gave the company its first vehicle recondition center as well as its only retail location. The wholesale business, meanwhile, is a byproduct of the e-commerce operations, as the company sells vehicles that aren't up to its standards to wholesale auction dealers.
The e-commerce business, built on its online marketplace of used car buyers and sellers, is the growth story. Though it made up slightly less than 50% of revenue last year, the e-commerce business will be the company's growth engine and should be 100% of investors' focus, since that's how the company is looking at the business' future.
In an interview, CFO Dave Jones explained that the company ramped up its marketing spending last April as it had the necessary inventory and technology in place to drive an acceleration in the business. Units sold on the e-commerce platform have more than doubled since then, and jumped 145% from April 2019 to April 2020. In the first quarter, average monthly visitors to the site jumped about 130% to 947,014, driving revenue in the first quarter up 159% to $233.2 million.
Considering the market opportunity and the strong demand, investors should expect the skyrocketing growth to continue.
3. There are some differences from Carvana
Jones said that Vroom has a lot of respect for Carvana, its larger e-commerce peer, and said from the customer perspective, the two businesses are similar, as both offer a streamlined process for buyers and sellers to handle used car transactions online. However, from an investor perspective, there are some key differences between Vroom and Carvana.
Vroom's business is centered around being asset-light, meaning the company owns relatively little property. That helps it keep fixed costs down and allows it to be financially flexible. Vroom only owns one of its vehicle reconditioning centers (VRC), which it acquired in the Texas Direct Auto deal, and has 13 third-party VRCs spread across the country. That allows Vroom to pass on some of the risks and costs to the operators who run those facilities. At the end of 2019, Vroom had just $7.8 million in property and equipment and generated nearly $1.2 billion in revenue.
By contrast, Carvana owns its reconditioning centers as well as the logistics network that brings cars to and from customers and its reconditioning centers, and its trademark vending machines. Carvana had $543.5 million in property and equipment at the end of 2019, and the company generated $3.4 billion in revenue.
Similarly, Vroom outsources financing for car buyers to partner banks and lenders, while Carvana provides loans itself and sells the loans to financing partners.
Being asset-light isn't necessarily an advantage, since doing so means Vroom may lose the potential to generate profits from the parts of the business it outsources. However, it does make the company more financially flexible and avoids some of the risk in owning hundreds of millions of dollars worth of support systems as well as the responsibility for the fixed costs that go along with them.
4. COVID-19 has been a tailwind
Like other e-commerce businesses, Vroom has seen a surge of interest during the pandemic and lockdown period, and third-party data backs up that trend. According to a survey from CarGurus, 61% of respondents would now consider shopping for a vehicle online. Before the crisis, that figure was just 32%.
If that pattern persists even when the pandemic is over, it could be a huge driver of Vroom's growth, because one of the biggest obstacles the company faces is simply getting consumers to consider buying or selling a car online. The impact of the pandemic, shutdown orders, and social distancing that have ensued is doing that work, marketing the idea of online car buying and selling, by itself.
Jones said Vroom's sales continued to surge in April and May, which were record months for the company as the desire to own a vehicle also seems to have increased due to fears of the virus. Those fears have led Americans to avoid public transit, airplanes, and ridesharing vehicles.
Finally, the pandemic could also provide a boost on the supply side -- which has historically been short of demand at Vroom -- as rental car companies are likely to accelerate fleet sales given that demand for rental cars has plunged during the pandemic.
5. Vroom has an eye on profitability
Like Carvana, Vroom isn't profitable. In 2019, the company had a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) net loss of $143 million.
Vehicles sold through its e-commerce business increased from 10,006 in 2018 to 18,945. Growth was even stronger in the first quarter, rising from 3,187 vehicles sold in the first three months of 2019 to 7,930 in the first quarter this year.
Jones said the business model was scalable, and that the company believes it will be profitable once it reaches 200,000 vehicles sold annually. If unit sales continue to roughly double, the company could reach that target in as soon as three to five years.
Still, top-line growth is the key figure to watch here. Vroom is tackling a massive market opportunity, and the company is just getting started with its e-commerce business, firing up the marketing to support demand and awareness only a year ago.
With a huge market awaiting it and triple-digit growth, it's clear why investors are excited about this e-commerce disruptor.
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>>> Nikola (NKLA) Soars Nearly 60 Percent on the Imminent Opening of Reservations for Its Badger Electric Truck
WCCF Tech
By Rohail Saleem
Jun 8, 2020
https://wccftech.com/nikola-nkla-soars-nearly-20-percent-on-the-imminent-opening-of-reservations-for-its-badger-electric-truck/
Nikola Corporation, the manufacturer of an electric version of the heavy-truck, is apparently hitting the road running following its merger with VectoIQ and a smashing debut on the NASDAQ index last week. As per the details revealed today, the reservations for the company’s much-anticipated Badger electric pickup truck will open on the 29th of June.
The founder and CEO of Nikola Motors, Trevor Milton, made the momentous announcement via a tweet:
As a refresher, Nikola unveiled the Badger electric pickup truck back in February 2020 to compete with Tesla’s much-anticipated Cybertruck. According to the details revealed by the company, the Badger will retail in two power configurations: a FCEV (Fuel-Cell Electric) or BEV (Battery-Electric). Though it sports a much more conventional design as opposed to the Cybertruck’s sharp corners and the futuristic vibe, the Badger offers impressive specs. As an illustration, the electric truck will offer a headline range of 600 miles through either of the two power configurations. Moreover, it will offer an acceleration from 0 to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds, a torque of up to 980 pounds-feet, and a peak horsepower of 906.
Nikola’s press release notes:
“The Badger will be outfitted with a 15-kilowatt power outlet for tools, lights and compressors, which is enough power to assist a construction site for approximately 12 hours without a generator.”
Nikola also claims that:
“With a fully loaded trailer and combined vehicle weight of 18,000 lbs., the Badger will be able to launch from a standstill on a 30% grade without motor stall.”
As we reported recently, the shareholders of VectoIQ – a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) headed by the former General Motors (NYSE: GM) Vice Chairman Steve Girsky – approved the much-anticipated merger of the company with Nikola Motors last week, with the transaction achieving a formal closure on the 3rd of June. Nikola Motors has now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of VectoIQ, with the combined entity adopting the name Nikola Corporation.
Nikola (NKLA) Investors Should Prepare for Pain and a Historic Bout of Volatility This Week
Nikola Motors has already generated waves with its Class 8 electric trucks, garnering significant interest from the trucking industry. As an illustration, the company has registered around 14,000 pre-orders for these trucks, translating to potential revenue of up to $10 billion. So why has the company’s offering generated such an elevated interest? The answer lies in the manner in which these trucks will be powered: a choice between a hydrogen fuel cell and a battery that carries high energy density. According to Nikola’s claims, its battery possesses around four times the energy density of a conventional lithium-ion cell. In theory, this feat should double the range of an EV vis-à-vis a comparable vehicle powered by the lithium-ion cells. The company is currently developing a network of hydrogen refueling stations where its trucks can be refueled in a matter of seconds, thereby, reducing journey times. Moreover, without the added heft of a full-scale battery, fuel cell-powered trucks can, in theory, transport a greater quantum of cargo.
Nikola’s stock is up 60 percent today, as of 11:16 a.m. ET. This corresponds to a market capitalization of more than $20 billion. For comparison, please note that Tesla has a market cap of $160.23 billion.
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>>> Vroom IPO: 5 things to know about the online used-car seller
MarketWatch
June 9, 2020
By Claudia Assis
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/vroom-ipo-five-things-to-know-about-the-online-used-car-seller-2020-06-03?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo
Vroom could thrive in a post-coronavirus world, but consumers may not be ready to give online car buying a try
Online used-car seller Vroom Inc. rose $468 million Tuesday in an initial public offering under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic.
Vroom VRM, 100.95% shares more than double on their first day of trading, and were recently gaining 105% after trading as high as $47.50. Vroom priced the IPO late Monday at $22 a piece.
Vroom could benefit from the broader shift to online shopping accelerated by the pandemic. With the economic uncertainty and turmoil in the car industry, however, its business model could become more challenging. Vroom already has had to cut prices and its profit margins have shrunk.
“The market is placing a high value on next-generation companies that can thrive in a post-COVID economy," said Matthew Kennedy, a senior IPO market strategist with Renaissance Capital, which manages IPO-focused ETFs. “Vroom falls into that category.”
Car dealerships are under pressure as consumers both delay big-ticket purchases and limit non-essential travel, if the dealerships are open at all, Kennedy said.
“However, tech-focused used car platforms like Vroom proved more resilient. Consumers are increasingly interested in shopping online for cars, and the COVID-19 outbreak (has) accelerated that trend.”
Kennedy points to the success of Carvana Co. CVNA, 2.13% shares, which have rebounded since March, when most of the U.S. went under shelter-in-place, public-health orders to slow the spread of the virus. Shares of Carvana, Vroom’s main competitor, are trading more than 600% above the company’s 2017 IPO price.
“That alone could drive interest in Vroom,” he said.
The IPO market has shown more activity in recent weeks, with the biggest deal of the year pricing at the higher end of its price range. Warner Music Group Corp. returned to public markets on Wednesday after nine years as a private company, raising $1.93 billion.
According to Renaissance, 35 IPOs have priced in 2020, a 42% drop so far from last year.
Here are five things to know about Vroom.
IPO terms suggest valuation of nearly $2.5 billion
Vroom’s IPO price of at $22 a share was upped from a previous range of $18-$20. The company is offering about 21.25 million shares, for a market capitalization of around $2.48 billion.
Underwriters include Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities, and Allen & Co. The underwriters have a 30-day over-allotment option to buy up to 3.2 million additional Vroom shares.
Vroom is led by Paul Hennessy, who previously was Priceline.com chief executive and chief marketing officer of Booking.com, both owned by Booking Holdings Inc. BKNG, -3.44%. Hennessy was named Vroom’s CEO in 2016.
Coronavirus impact
Despite the focus on online sales, Vroom was not immune to pandemic-related declines in business.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted us in a number of ways, including an adverse impact on our e-commerce operations,” Vroom said in its prospectus.
Between March 11 and March 31, as most U.S. residents were told to remain indoors and nonessential businesses closed, online sales fell 15% as compared to the 20 days before March 11, the company said.
Starting in late March, Vroom cut vehicle prices to drive sales and quickly reduce inventory bought before the pandemic, and it also halted all vehicle acquisitions other than trade-ins, it said.
The strategy has worked, the company claimed, saying it “significantly” reduced inventory and, due to the price cuts, “our demand returned to pre-COVID-19 levels, and we experienced robust e-commerce vehicle sales.”
That came at a price, however: “Those sales were at a greatly reduced gross profit per unit, the company said.
Vroom has since resumed buying cars from auctions and individuals, but is focusing on “high-demand models” to get better margins, it said. Vroom plans to build up inventory “in the near term to return to and ultimately exceed pre-COVID-19 levels.”
To protect its balance sheet amid the pandemic, Vroom said it had reduced costs and furloughed about a third of its workforce in early May.
About 60% of the furloughed employees returned to work by the end of May, the company said. As of late April, Vroom had $156.4 million in cash and cash equivalents and $280.8 million available under its credit facility.
It has not turned a profit yet
Vroom has not been profitable since its start in 2012 and deficits have piled on to about $616 million as of March 31, the company said. In addition, losses have widened this year and dividends are nowhere in sight.
Net losses hit $143 million in 2019 and $41.1 million in the first quarter, compared with losses of $85.2 million for 2018 and $27.1 million in the first quarter of 2019, Vroom said.
Revenue rose 39% to $1.2 billion in 2019. For the three months ended March 31, sales rose 60% to $375.8 million, Vroom said.
Its long list of potential pitfalls, or risk factors, include “inability to reduce costs, acquire and appropriately price vehicle inventory, attract customers or identify and respond to emerging trends in the used car industry; slowing demand for used vehicles and our related value-added products; weakness in the automotive retail industry generally,” as well as increasing competition.
Vroom expects “to continue to incur losses as we invest in and strive to grow our business,” it said. It has to ramp up expenses with advertising and marketing as it builds its brand, continues to invest in technology, and expands. Being public will also come at a higher cost, as it will have to face “significant” legal, accounting and other expenses that it did not incur as a private company.
E-commerce gross profit per vehicle declined 24% last year as compared with 2018, and by 0.4% for the first quarter as compared with first quarter of 2019. “To reduce our losses, we will need to increase our gross profit per unit by lowering our costs per unit by, among other things, increasing efficiencies in reconditioning and logistics, which we may be unable to do,” it said.
Vroom also has said it does not expect to pay any dividends “for the foreseeable future.”
People may not be ready to give online car-shopping a try
The online market for used cars is a lot smaller than online markets for other consumer products.
One of the biggest hurdles is misgivings about buying a vehicle, usually a consumer’s largest one-time expense after buying a home or saving for a down payment, sight unseen.
Even often-derided interactions with car salespeople might be preferable for some, as is the ability to test-drive and examine the vehicles under consideration. Then there’s the inconvenience with returning or exchanging cars bought online.
“If the online market for vehicles does not continue to develop and grow, our business will not grow and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected,” Vroom said.
On the plus side, Vroom offers consumers access to thousands of vehicles, ready for perusal at any time, with pricing and financing information readily available, the company said. Vroom’s cars come from auctions, consumers, dealers, and rental-car companies.
The used-car industry “is highly fragmented with over 42,000 dealers and millions of peer-to-peer transactions ... it also is ripe for disruption as an industry that is notorious for consumer dissatisfaction and has one of the lowest levels of e-commerce penetration at only 0.9%,” Vroom said.
It relies on several third parties
Vroom relies on several third-party companies to do the bulk of its job.
That include its customer-service team, which handles “the substantial majority” of inquiries, sales, purchases and financing of vehicles in Vroom’s business.
“Thus, the customer experience center is fundamental to the success of our business. As a result, the success of our business and our customer experience is partially dependent on a third party over which we have limited control,” the company said.
Some of its “reconditioning” business, or the sprucing up of vehicles before going on sale, is also handled by third parties in some cases, Vroom said.
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>>> The IPO market is back in full swing
by Ines Ferré
Yahoo Finance
June 7, 2020
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-ipo-market-back-in-full-swing-175803853.html
IPOs are back in full swing after the biggest week for public listings year-to-date in this coronavirus era.
Warner Music Group (WMG) last week raised $1.9 billion during its debut, making it the biggest IPO of the year, while ZoomInfo (ZI), a cloud based platform for sales and marketing teams, raised almost $1 billion. Shares of ZoomInfo closed over 60% higher on its first day of trading.
Shift4 Payments (FOUR) also received a solid welcome on the public markets last week. The company, which processes payments for over 200,000 businesses, priced its IPO above its range, at $23 a share. Shares soared 45% on Friday.
Shift4’s founder and CEO Jared Isaacman told Yahoo Finance his company’s roadshow was postponed back in March due to COVID-19. But his company saw encouraging signs in the economy, with “a recovery happening” over the last several weeks.
“We have tons of data, and we started to see the recovery really in late March and through April, and then really accelerate in May,” said Isaacman. “That’s what gave us the confidence to kind of reignite the IPO process and get it going.”
“There was a time when there was no commerce going on outside supermarkets, Netflix (NFLX), or Amazon (AMZN),” said Isaacman.
He says during the darkest periods of declines amid the pandemic, payment volumes dropped 70-75% in late March.
“But right now we’re seeing a 120% recovery from that period. That sure looks like a V-recovery to us,” he said.
“There are several states around the country that have cities that have reached pre-Covid processing levels, which is just a really encouraging sign for everybody else as we move forward,” he added.
Isaacman wasn’t shocked by the May jobs report, which showed the economy added 2.5 million jobs, instead of shedding jobs as economists had expected.
“We weren’t surprised ... because it certainly coincides with what we’ve been seeing in the numbers for the last few weeks,” he added.
The recent IPOs come amid the biggest 50-day market rally in history following the March 23rd lows. Investors appear to have a renewed appetite for listings after the IPO market fizzled out last year following the WeWork debacle.
Another batch of companies are set to go public this week, including used-car marketplace Vroom. The company aims to sell 18.75 million shares when it debuts on the Nasdaq under the ticker “VRM,” and currently expects to price shares between $15-$17.
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>>> U.S. IPO market to reopen with a bang as the biggest deal of the year gets set to price
MarketWatch
June 2, 2020
By Ciara Linnane
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-ipo-market-to-reopen-with-a-bang-as-biggest-deal-of-the-year-is-set-to-price-2020-06-02?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo
Warner Music Group is returning to public markets after a nine-year spell and could raise up to $1.82 billion
After a few months of slim pickings, the U.S. initial public offering market is expected to reopen with a bang this week with the biggest deal of the year expected to price later Tuesday.
Warner Music Group Corp. is returning to public markets after nine years as a private entity and is expected to raise up to $1.82 billion by selling 70 million shares priced at $23 to $26 each.
“It’s going to be the busiest week in quite a while,” said Kathleen Smith, principal at Renaissance Capital, a provider of institutional research and IPO-related exchange-traded funds.
Warner Music, one of three large companies that dominate the recorded-music industry, is the parent company for prominent record labels including Atlantic Records, Warner Records and Elektra Records, and mentions artists Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Twenty One Pilots, Lizzo and Katy Perry in its filing.
In its most recently completed fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 2019, the company had a profit of $258 million on revenue of $4.48 billion. In the two previous fiscal years, Warner Music had net income of $312 million and $149 million, and revenue of $4.01 billion and $3.58 billion, according to the filing.
After going public in 2005, Warner Music was taken private by Access Industries Inc. in 2011 for $3.3 billion. Rival Universal Music Group was valued at roughly $34 billion last year in investments from around the globe. Access will still have control of Warner Music once the public share sale is complete.
‘The performance of the IPO ETF is what fans the flames and drives issuance. And the deals that have priced are trading well, which gives investors the confidence to look at new issues.’— Kathleen Smith, Renaissance Capital
Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs are lead underwriters, with BofA Securities, Citgroup and J.P. Morgan acting as joint bookrunners. Another 23 banks are acting as co-managers. The company has applied to list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “WMG.”
The IPO market has had a dry period during the coronavirus pandemic, with only a few small biotechs and blank-check companies, or special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) venturing forth, according to Renaissance’s Smith. Blank-check companies have no set business until they acquire a company or companies with the money raised in an IPO.
While the secondary market has been on fire — May’s dollar volume of share offerings is the biggest since 2014, according to BTIG, as companies moved to bolster liquidity positions after the pandemic set in — new issuers have had to wait for an equity-market recovery from its pandemic lows, which looks to have arrived.
Proceeds from IPOs are down 64% so far in 2020, compared with the same period a year ago. The number of deals that have been completed is down 42% from a year ago, excluding SPACs, Smith said.
But the Renaissance IPO ETF has set fresh records in recent weeks, thanks to the inclusion in the fund of recently public digital companies and others that are benefiting from working-from-home products and services, such as Zoom Video Communications Inc. ZM, 1.54%, Slack Technologies Inc. WORK, 2.72% and biotech Moderna Inc. MRNA, -4.83%, which is developing a COVID-19 vaccine, she said.
The ETF has gained 26% in the past month and is up 21% on the year, easily outperforming the S&P 500’s SPX, 0.38% one-month gain of 8.4% and year-to-date decline of 5%.
“The performance of the IPO ETF IPO, 0.51% is what fans the flames and drives issuance,” she said. “And the deals that have priced are trading well, which gives investors the confidence to look at new issues.”
Warner Music and other private companies that come to market soon “will get the red-carpet treatment,” she said.
In a further sign of improved market sentiment, ZoomInfo Technologies Inc. ZI, , a platform that generates sales leads for businesses, raised the expected price range for its planned deal early Tuesday to $19 to $20 a share from a previous range of $16 to $18. The company is planning to sell 44.5 million shares to raise $890 million at the top of that range.
J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are underwriting the deal. For the three months ended March 31, the company recorded a loss of $5.9 million, narrower than the loss of $40.2 million posted in the year-earlier period. Revenue roughly doubled to $102.2 million, from $54.6 million.
Two other pending deals will offer clues as to investor appetite for new paper: Chinese gaming company NetEase Inc. NTES, 2.57%, which is planning a secondary listing for its stock on the Hong Kong exchange on June 11, and online use-car seller Vroom Inc. VRM, , which is hoping to capture part of the market that rival Carvana Co. CVNA, 17.69% has enjoyed since it went public in 2017.
“NetEase will be a test of whether Chinese IPOs can get done, and Vroom will test appetite for money-losing but fast-growing companies,” said Smith.
NetEase’s move is seen as defensive as the U.S. cracks down on Chinese listings and seeks greater disclosures from issuers.
Vroom reported a first-quarter net loss of $27.1 million, narrowing from $41.1 million in the year-ago period. Vroom’s revenue rose to $375.8 million from $235.1 million a year ago. Vroom’s revenue is primarily from its retail vehicle sales, which accounted for $308.7 million in the first quarter.
After that, Smith is expecting a burst of activity in the summer, when the many venture-capital- and private-equity-backed companies currently on the sidelines come to market to raise much-needed capital.
The November presidential election is expected to prompt another pause in activity, if 2020 behaves like a typical election year, she said.
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>>> CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (CRWD) provides cloud-delivered solutions for next-generation endpoint protection in the United States, Australia, Germany, India, Romania, and the United Kingdom. It offers 11 cloud modules on its Falcon platform through a software as a service subscription-based model that covers various security markets, such as endpoint security, security and IT operations, and threat intelligence to deliver comprehensive breach protection even against today's most sophisticated attacks. The company primarily sells its platform and cloud modules through its direct sales team. CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. <<<
>>> DocuSign (DOCU): $2,179.31
Share price on April 26, 2018: $29
Share price on Oct. 22, 2019: $63.20
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/topstocks/what-dollar1000-invested-in-snap-lyft-and-other-unicorn-ipos-is-worth-today/ss-AAJTj6j#image=14
DocuSign is one of the few stocks on this list that remain big winners for investors following their IPOs. The company pioneered the use of e-signing technology and claims hundreds of millions of users in more than 180 different countries. During its 2019 second quarter, DocuSign’s revenue grew 41% year-over-year, while billings climbed 47%. Analysts have a “strong buy” rating on DocuSign, with an average price target of $71.11. <<<
>>> DocuSign Inc. (DOCU) provides cloud based software in the United States. The company offers e-signature solution that enables businesses to digitally prepare, execute, and act on agreements. The company sells its products through direct, partner-assisted, and Web-based sales. It serves enterprise businesses, commercial businesses, and small businesses, such as professionals, sole proprietorships and individuals. The company was 2003 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. <<<
>>> Tradeweb Markets Inc. (TW) builds and operates electronic marketplaces in the United States and internationally. The company's marketplaces facilitate trading in a range of asset classes, including rates, credit, money markets, and equities. It offers pre-trade data and analytics, trade execution, and trade processing, as well as post-trade data, analytics, and reporting services. The company provides flexible order and trading systems to institutional investors in 37 markets across 24 currencies. It also offers a range of electronic, voice, and hybrid platforms to approximately 300 dealers and financial institutions on electronic or hybrid markets with Dealerweb platform; and trading solutions for financial advisory companies and traders with Tradeweb Direct platform. The company serves a network of approximately 2,500 clients in the institutional, wholesale, and retail client sectors. Its customers include asset managers, hedge funds, insurance companies, central banks, banks and dealers, proprietary trading companies, retail brokerage and financial advisory companies, and regional dealers. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in New York, New York. Tradeweb Markets Inc. is a subsidiary of BCP York Holdings. <<<
>>> Tradeweb Markets (TW): $1,552.96
Share price on April 3, 2019: $27
Share price on Oct. 22, 2019: $41.93
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/topstocks/what-dollar1000-invested-in-snap-lyft-and-other-unicorn-ipos-is-worth-today/ss-AAJTj6j#image=16
Tradeweb operates global marketplaces to facilitate the trading of fixed-income securities and derivatives, offering more than 40 products in over 60 countries around the world. The company’s IPO raised more than $1 billion and investors pushed the stock price up 27% from the IPO price the moment they started trading. After peaking in July 2019 at around $50 a share, the stock has fallen back about 20%. Unlike many other recent IPOs, however, Tradeweb is profitable, reporting quarterly net income of $24.8 million in its Aug. 8, 2019, earnings release.
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>>> Why FPOs Are Taking the Wind Out of Tech IPOs
Bloomberg
November 1, 2019
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-01/why-fpos-are-taking-the-wind-out-of-tech-ipos-quicktake?srnd=premium
It used to be that technology company initial public offerings (IPOs), were as exciting and potentially enriching an event as the markets had to offer, as investors fought to get in on the ground floor of a hot startup. Now there’s a different ground floor: the final private offering, or what some in technology circles are calling an FPO. These late-stage venture capital funding rounds are attracting increased interest from a wide range of other big investors. The demand comes as startups stay private longer, making an FPO a way to buy a stake in a more mature company before those companies enter public markets.
1. What happens during an FPO?
Like IPOs, FPOs also raise money by issuing new stock, but they do so on the private market. In addition to gaining the money companies need to fuel their growth, these private deals can also let insiders and other early investors sell some of their existing shares. (Confusingly, FPO is also an acronym for follow-on public offerings, a new issue of stock from a company that’s already held an IPO.)
2. How is this different from normal fundraising?
There’s no strict definition of an FPO versus a typical venture-capital financing round, and the finality of the fundraising is a promise or expectation, not a guarantee. But a key feature is they often go beyond the VC circle to bring in a broader group of investors. In the past, the job of an IPO was to make this transition from private to public market shareholders. Now FPOs start the process earlier, though with some of the same beat-the-rush allure.
3. What’s in it for investors?
Getting in on an FPO can make it easier for them to amass a large stake in a company than if they wait for the IPO. During the IPO process, a company sells a limited pool of stock, with investment banks deciding how it’s apportioned. Some FPO rounds can become so big that the investors that normally would have tried to get in on an IPO allocation stay on the sidelines because they already own stakes -- a factor that’s been cited in the lackluster responses when Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. launched their IPOs. Peloton Interactive Inc. and SmileDirectClub Inc. also won big backers in private transactions, only to see their shares drop after public offerings. Overall, IPOs have lost a lot of their luster as instant cash machines: In the first 10 months of this year, only 13% of new offerings in the U.S. saw their share price rise by 50% or more in the first 30 days. In 1999, during the dot-com boom, almost half of U.S. IPOs met or exceeded that performance.
Fewer IPOs and Much Less Pop
Compared to the dot.com boom, only a handful of U.S. offerings this year saw their share price soar in the first month; 2019 data through Oct. 31
4. Who buys in?
Hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds and family offices are all among FPO investors. Engineers and executives in the tech industry have also been pooling their money into special purpose vehicles that buy stock from startup insiders. These opportunities even attract mutual fund companies that traditionally have focused on public markets, like Fidelity Investments Co. and T. Rowe Price Group Inc. So far this year, 27% of VC rounds that raised more than $100 million had at least one such “crossover” investor that normally deals in public markets. That’s up from 13% in 2017, according to Silicon Valley Bank.
5. Are there any downsides?
Private investments don’t always live up to their original promise. When an IPO planned by WeWork collapsed, the steep fall in the company’s fortunes showed the perils of private markets, where valuations can soar only to fall into a downward spiral when faced with the scrutiny of public markets. Airbnb Inc. has also raised billions of dollars, including from crossover investors, as a private company. But its private valuation of about $31 billion has barely budged since 2016, even as the company worked on plans to publicly trade its shares next year.
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>>> Branson’s Virgin Galactic Sinks 20% Since NYSE Debut This Week
Bloomberg
By Justin Bachman
October 31, 2019
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-31/branson-s-virgin-galactic-sinks-22-since-nyse-debut-this-week?srnd=premium
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. is getting off to a rocky start as the first publicly traded space-tourism company.
The shares have yet to post a daily gain since adopting the SPCE ticker on Oct. 28, following a merger with a shell investment company that was already trading. Virgin Galactic tumbled 11% to $9.41 at the close in New York, bringing this week’s decline to 20%.
Buying shares amounts to a bet on the company’s ambitious plans to fly its first passengers into space next year, including billionaire Branson. That’s a business with both potential and risk, and Virgin Galactic has no sales or income at the moment.
“Even compared to an Uber or Lyft or a Slack, this is a really early-stage business. Think of it as a startup that just happens to be listed,” said Alex King, founder of Cestrian Capital Research in Newport Beach, California. King personally owns Virgin Galactic shares. “I think this is going to happen a lot with this stock. It’s going to have some very red days and some very green days.”
Virgin Galactic faces questions about the ultimate size of the suborbital tourism market and the competitive challenges, said Steven Jorgenson, general partner at Starbridge Venture Capital. Two well-funded rivals, Jeff Bezos‘s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., plan to offer orbital flights.
“You have a lot of uncertainties to juggle,” Jorgenson said in an email. “Virgin Galactic does seem to be a very competent company from a professional and engineering standpoint, but they still have a lot to prove as they have yet to actually fly their first customers.”
Virgin Galactic has a backlog of 600 customers who have placed deposits of as much as $250,000 each to ride into space. Executives have said they expect to raise the fare once the company begins service and resumes taking reservations.
“Just like with most space companies, there’s a lot of hype around Virgin Galactic,” said Meagan Crawford, managing partner with SpaceFund, a venture capital fund in Texas. “I think what you’re seeing today is a market correction based on that hype wearing off a bit. It’s obviously hard to value a company that isn’t yet operational and has no firm date when that’s going to change.”
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>>> WeWork Fiasco, Peloton Flop Endanger Unicorns Hoping For Big IPOs
Bloomberg
By Crystal Tse and Michael Hytha
September 27, 2019
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-27/ipo-collapse-threatens-2020-class-of-unicorn-hopefuls?srnd=premium
Postmates, McAfee IPO plans unclear, Madewell moving ahead
Airbnb could meet gloomy, uncertain environment in 2020
WeWork, Peloton, Endeavor, Poshmark and more just got the message: It’s not a great time to go public.
Disappointing initial public offerings and unsettled economic conditions could shut down many IPOs for the rest of the year -- and maybe well into 2020, when the next batch of marquee IPO candidates like Airbnb could meet an even gloomier market and geopolitical environment.
The Hollywood agency Endeavor Group Holdings Inc. shelved its IPO on Thursday, saying unfavorable market conditions have dented investor sentiment. Poshmark Inc., an online resale marketplace for second-hand clothing, is expected to postpone its IPO into next year. Also in flux are a range of stock offerings from e-commerce companies and cybersecurity firms Palantir Technologies Inc., Postmates Inc., and McAfee Inc.
The dim outlook isn’t a total surprise given the high-profile flops this year. Fitness startup Peloton Interactive Inc. fell 11% below its IPO price on its first day of trading Thursday and extended declines by 2% on Friday. WeWork, the office-sharing company, was forced to put off its offering to next year in the face of tepid demand.
Ride-sharing giants Uber and Lyft have also traded well below their offering prices, prompting “a lot more market scrutiny” of IPOs, said Jeffrey Langbaum, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
The trend shows a disconnect between companies’ lofty private valuations and public expectations that are skeptical of even well-known brands.
“Private valuations have been going up, but that hasn’t necessarily translated into the public IPO market,” said EquityZen research analyst Adam Augusiak-Boro.
Sell Instead
Sharing-economy startups, especially late-stage companies, are going to have a tough time going public, said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh. The appeal of selling rather than going public will increase for companies such as Postmates, he said.
Postmates said it had submitted a confidential filing in February, but so far there is no sign the company is starting an IPO roadshow anytime soon. Its plans could slip in to 2020, people familiar with the matter said. Postmates declined to comment.
Palantir, the security company, has decided to keep on its path of raising billions in the private markets instead of a near-term IPO, Bloomberg has reported.
McAfee had been looking to be valued as high as $8 billion in an IPO later this fall, Bloomberg has reported. It’s unclear where its plans stand. McAfee declined to comment.
J. Crew Plans
Despite the uncertainty, some IPOs on deck for the year are moving forward, but it might be because they have no choice. Madewell, the denim unit of J. Crew, is still planning to go public this year, according to a person familiar with the matter. J. Crew is distressed and the company is under pressure to deliver returns to its credit holders. A representative for Madewell declined to comment.
Before the high-profile IPO slog this month, 2019 had been a solid one for debut offerings. With almost $17.4 billion raised, May was the biggest month for IPOs on U.S. exchanges since September 2014 when Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. raised $25 billion in its IPO. More than half of the May total was Uber’s $8.1 billion offering.
Overall, 187 IPOs on U.S. exchanges have raised $59 billion this year, including so-called greenshoe shares issued by underwriters after the initial listing.
Bright Spots
Software and cloud computing companies have generally performed well. Crowdstrike Holdings Inc. exceeded its IPO target with a $612 million offering in June and its shares are now up more than 50% from its offer price.
Beyond Meat Inc., which makes burgers made of chickpeas other plant-based proteins, is the best performer of the IPO class of 2019, with its shares trading more than 500% above their offer price.
Smaller, less high-profile companies also seem able to push ahead with IPOs. Opportun Financial Corp., a financial technology company, finished trading 8% above its IPO price after raising roughly $90 million.
Still, other software companies have flopped. Slack Technologies Inc., a workplace-messaging platform provider, bypassed the IPO process with an unusual direct listing of its shares. Slack’s shares are now down about 15% since the debut.
“Companies aren’t necessarily rushing to go public,” said Alan Felder, head of private capital markets for Americas at UBS Group AG. “The private market is very healthy.”
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Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Zoom Video Communications Inc | ZM | 8.95% |
Uber Technologies Inc | UBER | 8.80% |
Coinbase Global Inc Ordinary Shares - Class A | COIN | 6.52% |
CrowdStrike Holdings Inc Class A | CRWD | 6.11% |
Pinterest Inc | PINS | 5.05% |
Peloton Interactive Inc | PTON | 4.73% |
Slack Technologies Inc Class A | WORK | 3.98% |
Avantor Inc | AVTR | 3.00% |
Roblox Corp Ordinary Shares - Class A | RBLX | 2.82% |
Royalty Pharma PLC Class A | RPRX | 2.67% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Snap Inc Class A | SNAP | 9.20% |
Uber Technologies Inc | UBER | 5.63% |
Marvell Technology Inc | MRVL | 4.69% |
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc | TMO | 3.36% |
Dow Inc | DOW | 3.27% |
Tradeweb Markets Inc | TW | 2.49% |
Corteva Inc | CTVA | 2.48% |
Keurig Dr Pepper Inc | KDP | 2.48% |
Dell Technologies Inc Class C | DELL | 2.30% |
Corning Inc | GLW | 2.12% |
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