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Slack Reportedly Chooses NYSE Over NASDAQ for its Direct Listing

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Last year in December, Slack announced that it is prepping for its IPO in 2019 and had hired Goldman Sachs as its Lead Underwriter. Now, according to the reports from Wall Street Journal, the company following the path of Spotify, has selected the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) instead of the NASDAQ for the direct listing of its shares.

slack
Image Slack: fubiz.net

Slack has earned enough value being private, and reportedly, it had $900 million in cash on hand last year. So, similar to Spotify, it is not, specifically, the money for which the company is going public, and hence it has selected the direct listing over the IPO.

Direct listing is a bit different from the IPO, as the companies who file for IPO are looking for more financial support for their growth. In the direct listing, most of the times, the shares are not backed up by any financial institution, and the shareholders like the investors, promoters or the employees can directly sell their shares.

Last year, Spotify also chose NYSE for its direct listing, and now the valuation of the company is $25 billion up. Also, companies like Uber and Pinterest have also selected NYSE for their IPO, this year. Last Friday, Lyft went public on NASDAQ, and reportedly, its price shed over 10 per cent in the morning trading.

The office-messaging platform has been a member of the Unicorn Club for a long time now, and the direct listing of the company will be a financial boost for its investors. The company is still in talks with the Securities and Exchange Commission and has submitted the draft registration statement on Form S-1, last month.

The company, currently, is serving over 10 million daily users across the globe including the 85,000 paid subscribers. It is one of the most valued and successful companies in Silicon Valley, and its direct listing may set a higher bar for the other SaaS companies. For now, Slack has not made any comments on the matter. But, according to the WSJ, the listing may occur in the month of June or July this year.

Uber, Lyft Rewarding the Drivers with Cash Bonuses to Invest in Shares in Their Respective IPOs

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According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, the cab-renting service Uber and Lyft are planning to allocate some cash bonuses to their drives so that they can invest in the company’s shares through the upcoming IPO of those companies.

uber-lyft
Image Source: howtogeek.com

There has been a lot of discussions about the role of a driver in a transport company and most of the times those drivers are not recognised as the full-time employees of that company. Also, under the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), those companies are not allowed to grant those drives a share of the stocks, directly, in the company.

Although many times several laws have been trying to put those drivers into the full-time employee category, companies like Uber and Lyft regards the drivers as individual contractors. Now the two companies are planning to offer those drivers who have been a part of their team for a longer time with rewards, such that they would be able to buy a share of the stakes in the IPO of those companies, before shares to begin trading on public stock exchanges.

According to the reports, Lyft will be granting the drivers, who have completed 10,000 rides, with $1,000 and the driver who have completed over 20,000 rides will get $10,000. It will be the choice of the drivers if they want to keep the money or put the money towards IPO-priced shares.

On the other hand, there is no hint from Uber over the amount of reward money. Although there has been no confirmation from Lyft as well, and the money value can be changed depending upon the situation.

Uber had been talking about offering a part of the shares of the company to its drivers since 2016, and last year, in May, the Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also announced that the company was planning to provide extra benefits and rewards to its drivers. Uber has also started free tuition fee and insurance programs for the drivers working for the company.

Noticeably, both Lyft and Uber are ready to debut on the Nasdaq for their IPOs. It is expected that Lyft between $20 billion and $25 billion in its IPO, and Uber may reach $120 billion in the IPO. Lyft and Uber will be putting hundreds of millions of dollars toward the reward program for its drivers so that they would be able to invest during their IPOs.

Pinterest Hires Goldman & JPMorgan Chase as the Lead Underwriters for its Anticipated IPO

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Pinterest is all set for its IPO, and reportedly, this San Francisco based photo sharing website owner has hired Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase as its lead underwriters for the same. The company has been in the business, since almost 11 years, and has become a well known visual search site where people post and share pictures related to different sorts including fashion, beauty, lifestyle, wedding etc.

pinterest
Image Source: appobzor.com

According to Reuters, the company has indicated that the company may raise $1.5 billion in the IP0, and it may go public in the first half of the year. According to the people with the awareness on the subject, said that in 2017, Pinterest raised $150 million in secret funding round and was valued at $12.3 billion, at the same share prices.

Pinterest, a social media website, with a unique concept, has grown very well since its inception, and currently, has more than a 250 million monthly active users. Last year, the company valued between $12 billion and $13 billion and reported annual revenue of $700 million, which was 50 per cent more than the revenue it gained in 2017. The main reason behind the success of this platform, according to one of its investor is that “there are no Russian trolls” on Pinterest, and also, there have been no cases in which Pinterest have ever sold its users’ data.

Pinterest is like a bulletin board and used to bookmark and pin things the users want to track onto it. The boards are categorized based on different topics. But the site is just not a photo sharing website, as it also allows people to sell goods on the platforms. The user can also shop for things through their mobiles, by holding and clicking on the desired product.

Although the timing for the IPO is not the best as its contemporary companies, including Facebook and Twitter, are going through serious user privacy breach allegations, put by the politicians. But as Pinterest has always been away from such matters it may not affect its IPO.

Notably, along with Goldman Sachs, Pinterest’s IPO is backed by many other investment firms, including Valiant Capital Partners, Wellington Management, Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Pinterest is Looking for Underwriters to Take the Company Public in 2019

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Uber and Lyft have already announced their initial public offering in 2019. After the IPO, the valuation of Uber could hit $120 billion, and Lyft may value over $30 billion. Following the footsteps of the two, now Pinterest is also about to enter the list of the companies which are planning their IPOs in the coming year.

pinterest
Image Source: wsj.com

Pinterest is a visual search engine and shopping tool, which earns money through ads inserted into its stream of ‘pins’. The evaluated revenue of the company for the year 2018 was evaluated to be $1 billion. In the month of September, the platform tracked 250 million monthly users. With 1.5 million businesses on the platform, the company may value at more than $12 billion after it goes public.

Currently, Pinterest is in talks with various banks and is looking for underwriters for its IPO. Also, according to the reports, Pinterest may hire the former Google and Alibaba exec Jane Penner as its head of investor relations.

Ben Silbermann, the CEO of Pinterest had already talked about the company going public in 2019 but had not confirmed the dates. Now if the reports are to be believed, the company will go public as soon as in April 2019.

Pinterest was founded in 2010 and is growing at its own pace following its own niche, way different to its contemporaries, Facebook and Instagram. The company currently is valued at between $13 billion to $15 billion, having 800+ employees. The year 2019 is going to be the year for the IPOs, as companies like Uber and Lyft have already registered for their IPOs in the early December, followed by Slack and Pinterest in the same queue.