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Pinterest May Go Public Coming June; Files Confidentially for U.S. IPO

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According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the social media website, Pinterest has confidentially filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The news came out on Thursday, according to which the company is seeking a valuation of at least $12 billion over its IPO.

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Image Source: ebay.com

Pinterest plans to go for the IPO in the month of June this year, for that it has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co, as the lead underwriters, although the company has denied commenting over this matter.

Pinterest is one of the largest, still-private, companies and the Unicorns of Silicon Valley, that had also raised $150 million in a private funding round in 2017. A few months ago the CEO of the company Ben Silbermann had also announced in a statement that the company was planning to go public in April 2019. But due to the economic slowdown, like few other companies, the IPO has delayed to June.

In the last September, it was estimated that the San Francisco based company caters to over 250 million through the company’s website and mobile app. The users use Pinterest as a bulletin board where they pin the things of their interest. The app is also used as an e-commerce platform to sell products and services. The company itself earns profits from marketing and advertisements. In 2018, the recorded revenue of the company was more than $700 million.

The news of the company going public can be an after effect of the other tech giants like Slack, Uber and Lyft filing for their IPO, even though the company has still maintained confidentiality over this topic. Under the JOBS Act of 2012, a few companies with annual revenue less than $1 billion can file for IPO confidentially, such that they could raise capital before the before releasing detailed financial information.

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.

Ben Silbermann : The Co-founder of World’s Largest Professional Community

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A believer of persistence and continuous hard work, Ben Silbermann, is an American billionaire Internet entrepreneur and one of the three co-founders of Pinterest. Silbermann would have never thought that his childhood habit of collecting things, like bugs, postal stamps and baseball cards, will make him a billionaire one day. The photo sharing and pinning them onto a pinning board, on Pinterest, isn’t different from his old hobby of collecting things. And now, Pinterest has become one of the most used social media platforms that boast over 20 million users worldwide.

Early Life

Silbermann was born on 14 July 1982. He was a native of Des Moines, living with his parents Jane Wang and Neil Silbermann, both of whom were ophthalmologists. He did his schooling from Des Moines Central Academy and attended the Research Science Institute at MIT. When he was in school, he also went through a heart transplant surgery. In 2003, he received a graduate degree in political science from the Yale University.

Ben Silbermann
Image Source: Flickr

Career

After graduating, Silbermann got a chance to work with Google, as a member of the online advertising group. At the time, he became more interested in programming and conceived an idea of a startup. He discussed the matter with his friend and the future co-founder of Pinterest, Paul Sciarra, and quit his job. Sciarra started teaching Silbermann the basic programming, and both started working on an iOS app, Tote. Tote was a fail, and the two started thinking of a new idea that could help them with their startup.

Founding Pinterest

The two thought of creating an app that could help the people for keeping the necessary records in the phone, and see the things they wanted to see. The idea was great for the people who wanted to avoid filling up of their email accounts, with unnecessary catalogues. But, the timing of the idea was not that good, as at the same time the financial crisis had occurred, and nobody was ready to invest in technology startups.

Ben and Paul had meetings with many of the capitalists, but everybody was happy investing their money in gold. At last, Silbermann found out about a competition happening in NYU, which had a huge cash prize for the winners. Though the two won the second prize with no money, they were able to meet a few investors., one of whom was convinced to fund the half of the round, only if they could get the other half of the round.

Finally, they managed to arrange the money and started working on their startup project. Silbermann had met his third partner Evan Sharp, through a common friend, when Sharp was studying at the NYU. Evan and Silbermann shared a common interest of collecting things and wanted to create something related to it for their themselves.

In the startup project, Evan also joined hands with Silbermann, and in 2009, they started developing Pinterest. In March 2010, they launched the site as a closed beta, soon followed by the launch of an invitation-only open beta. Just within nine months of its launch, Pinterest had 10000 users, and in March 2011, the company launched an iPhone app. Silbermann contacted 5000 of Pinterest users, through letters, and even met a few of them in person, to receive feedback from them. Until the summer of 2011, the three founders of the company were operating the company from a small apartment.

In late October 2013, the website was valued at $3.8 billion. By October 2016, it had 150 million monthly active users, and in June 2017, Pinterest raised $150 million of funding from its investors.

Personal Life

Silbermann lives in San Francisco, California, with his wife Divya Bhaskaran and two children. Forbes estimated his net worth at $1.6 billion as of 2018. He was listed 12 among America’s Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40 (2016) and also got featured with Mark Zuckerberg on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 (2014).

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.