TechCrunch Conversations: Direct listings

Last April, Spotify surprised Wall Street bankers by choosing to go public through a direct listing process rather than through a traditional IPO. Instead of issuing new shares, the company simply sold existing shares held by insiders, employees and investors directly to the market – bypassing the roadshow process and avoiding at least some of Wall Street’s fees. That pattens is set to continue in 2019 as Silicon Valley darlings Slack and Airbnb take the direct listing approach. Have we reach...
Tags: Amazon, TC, Spotify, NYC, Finance, Government, Ipo, Funding, US, Tech, Banking, Policy, Netflix, Pandora, Zynga, Credit Suisse

Tencent-backed China movie ticketing platform launches $345 million HK IPO

Maoyan Entertainment, China's top movie ticketing platform that is backed by internet giant Tencent, launched on Friday its IPO in Hong Kong in which it aims to raise up to $345 million, a much smaller sum than what it was eyeing last year.
Tags: Hong Kong, Money, China, Ipo, businessNews, Tencent

As Xiaomi Shares Sink, a Russian Investor Is Still Up $1 Billion

Milner, an early investor in Facebook Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., quadrupled his money even though Xiaomi’s market value has tumbled by more than $18 billion since the IPO. The declines accelerated when a six-month lockup period expired on Jan. 9, promoting some investors to sell the stock.
Tags: Science, Ipo, Xiaomi, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Facebook Inc, Milner

In dueling Uber and Lyft IPOs, two Google dealmakers named David share competing interests (GOOGL, GOOG)

Uber and Lyft have both confidentially filed for IPOs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and are expected to go public in 2019. While the ride-hailing competitors have dueling IPOs, Google's parent company Alphabet stands to gain no matter who fares better. Alphabet has substantial investments in both Uber and Lyft through its two venture capital arms, GV and CapitalG. The 2019 tech IPO line up has promised plenty of side-choosing as ride hailing rivals Lyft and Uber prep for duelin...
Tags: Google, Lyft, Uber, Ipo, Singapore, Softbank, Trends, David, Jeff Bezos, Google Ventures, Wall Street Journal, Securities And Exchange Commission, Alphabet, Axel Springer, Comcast Ventures, Lee

2 dealmakers named David: Uber and Lyft's expected IPOs will trigger competition at Google's in-house VC firms (GOOGL, GOOG)

Uber and Lyft have both confidentially filed for IPOs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and are expected to go public in 2019. While the ride-hailing competitors have dueling IPOs, Google's parent company Alphabet stands to gain no matter who fares better. Alphabet has substantial investments in both Uber and Lyft through its two venture capital arms, GV and CapitalG. The 2019 tech IPO line up has promised plenty of side-choosing as ride hailing rivals Lyft and Uber prep for duelin...
Tags: Apple, Google, Lyft, Uber, Ipo, Singapore, Softbank, Trends, David, Google Ventures, Wall Street Journal, Securities And Exchange Commission, Alphabet, Axel Springer, Comcast Ventures, Lee

Slack is losing its second-most important executive in the run-up to its expected IPO this year

Slack's chief product officer April Underwood announced Thursday that she'll be leaving the $7.1 billion startup to focus on #Angels, an organization she co-founded that focuses on investing in female founders. Underwood is widely considered the strong right hand to Slack CEO and cofounder Stewart Butterfield — she's in charge of much of Slack's strategy and product decisions.  Underwood will be replaced by Tamar Yehoshua, who previously led the search business at Google.  Slack is expected ...
Tags: Google, Twitter, Microsoft, North Korea, Ipo, Angels, Trends, Kim Jong Un, Silicon Valley, Stewart Butterfield, April Underwood, Underwood, Tamar Yehoshua, Slack Underwood, Google Slack

Market regulator expects IPOs this year, including Emirates Global Aluminium - The National

Market regulator expects IPOs this year, including Emirates Global Aluminium - The National:The Securities and Commodities Authority expects initial public offerings, including that of Emirates Global Aluminium to go ahead this year, provided the financial market conditions improve, according to a top official.“We have a couple of IPO requests in the pipeline, but on hold [waiting for] improvement of the financial markets,” said Obaid Al Zaabi, deputy chief executive of SCA, on Wednesday. I’m ve...
Tags: Travel, Ipo, Middle East, North Africa, SCA, Rupert Neil Bumfrey, Securities and Commodities Authority, Emirates Global Aluminium, Obaid al Zaabi, Emirates Global Aluminium The National

Goldman Sachs just revealed it made a nice profit off Uber ahead of an IPO it hopes to help run

Goldman Sachs on Wednesday disclosed its sale last year of a stake in Uber. It was part of CFO Stephen Scherr's extended explanation of the Wall Street firm's investing and lending segment.  Goldman's fourth quarter results got a boost from the segment, which makes equity and debt investments in hundreds of companies and has historically been considered a "black box." Uber is considering an initial public offering this year, and may choose Goldman Sachs to help with the deal. It's already sele...
Tags: Ipo, Softbank, Trends, Bloomberg, Silicon Valley, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Goldman, Wall Street Journal, Republic of China, Uber Technologies, Scherr, Stephen Scherr

2019 was supposed to be a banner year for IPOs, but now it's turning into a 's---show'

This year was supposed to be the year of the unicorn initial public offering, with massively funded private startups like Uber, Lyft, and Slack all preparing to go public. Now, just two weeks into the year, bankers say it's turning into a "s---show." The federal-government shutdown has left the Securities and Exchange Commission closed, which means most companies cannot move forward with going public. Market volatility is also creating an unstable environment for soon-to-be-public companies. ...
Tags: China, Ipo, Trends, SEC, Cloudflare, Donald Trump, King, Securities And Exchange Commission, Holden, Don, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher Flom, Kenton King, Tom Holden, Ropes Gray Longer, Business Insider After February, Holden Once

Infor lands $1.5 billion investment ahead of IPO

Infor, a NYC-based enterprise software company, announced a massive $1.5 billion investment today that could be the precursor to an IPO in the next 12-24 months. One analyst is estimating that the valuation could be at least $60 billion. The investment is being led by Koch Industries’ investment arm, Koch Equity Development, and Golden Gate Capital. Today’s investment comes on top of a $2 billion+ cash infusion from Koch in 2017, bringing the total raised to at least more than $3.5 billion along...
Tags: TC, Cloud, New York, Enterprise, Ipo, Funding, Tech, ERP, Sap, CRM, Enterprise Software, Koch Industries, Newman, Koch, Wang, Infor

Infor lands $1.5 billion investment ahead of possible IPO

Infor, a NYC-based enterprise software company, announced a massive $1.5 billion investment today that could be the precursor to an IPO down the road. One analyst is estimating that the valuation could be at least $60 billion. The investment is being led by Koch Industries’ investment arm, Koch Equity Development, and Golden Gate Capital. Today’s investment comes on top of a $2 billion+ cash infusion from Koch in 2017, bringing the total raised to at least more than $3.5 billion. That’s a lot of...
Tags: TC, Cloud, New York, Enterprise, Ipo, Funding, Tech, ERP, Sap, CRM, Enterprise Software, Koch Industries, Newman, Koch, Wang, Infor

10 things in tech you need to know today

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Wednesday. 1. Huawei's CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei broke a years-long silence to deny that his company spies for the Chinese government, and to say he misses his daughter, arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, 'very much.' Ren hasn't spoken to the international press for three years. 2. Ren Zhengfei tried to dispel the narrative that Huawei is a victim of the US-China trade war, calling President Donald Trump a great president. Ren called f...
Tags: Google, Facebook, Ipo, US, Trends, Netflix, Tencent, SEC, Airbnb, Donald Trump, Huawei, Costco, Pewdiepie, Alexa, Cto, Deliveroo

Amid fears of an impending recession, some employees at Silicon Valley's IPO-bound startups say they're starting to get anxious

2019 was supposed to be a blockbuster year for tech companies going public — but the volatility of the public markets is making some employees at IPO-bound tech companies nervous.  We spoke to a current employee at Uber and a current employee at Airbnb. Both companies are expected to hold their long-awaited IPOs this year.  The Uber employee says that there's a lot of anxiety within the company over the company's valuation — conflicting reports have said that Uber could go public with a market...
Tags: Google, Uber, Ipo, Trends, Silicon Valley, Airbnb, Travis Kalanick, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, Signal, Brian Chesky, San Francisco Bay Area, Dara Khosrowshahi, Khosrowshahi, Trust Safety, Uber Lyft Slack Palantir

Madrona appoints Cochran as MD

Madrona Venture Group has named Hope Cochran as managing director. Cochran joined the early-stage venture firm in 2017 as a venture partner. In addition to Cochran’s appointment, the firm has promoted Troy Cichos to chief operating officer and partner and Jennifer Chambers to administrative partner. PRESS RELEASE SEATTLE, WA – January 15, 2019 – Madrona Venture Group, an early-stage venture capital firm, announced today that Hope Cochran is expanding her role to become a Managing Director. Cochr...
Tags: Amazon, Ipo, Trends, People, Hasbro, Seattle, Pacific Northwest, Madrona Venture Group, Activision, Seattle Wa, Jennifer, Cochran, King Digital, Jennifer Chambers, PeopleSoft, Riveter

Ahead of IPO, Airbnb achieves profitability for second year in a row

Airbnb, which is expected to go public this year, announced today a number of milestones. For starters, Airbnb says it was profitable on an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) basis for the second year in a row in 2018. In Q3 2018, Airbnb said it had its strongest quarter ever, where it saw “substantially more” than $1 billion in revenue. The following quarter, Airbnb found a replacement for former CFO Laurence Tosi, who left amid tension between him and Ai...
Tags: Amazon, Startups, Ipo, Collaborative Consumption, Tech, Airbnb, Brian Chesky, EBITDA, Dave Stephenson, IPO Airbnb, Laurence Tosi

French logistics company Gefco hires banks to start IPO process: Reuters

Logistics company Gefco (IPO-GEFC.PA), which is controlled by Russian Railways (RZhD), has hired several leading investment banks to start the process for its possible stock market flotation, sources told Reuters. The banks in the process are Societe Generale, JP Morgan, Citigroup, UBS and Credit Suisse. A spokesman for Gefco declined to comment on the matter, while Russian Railways also declined comment. SocGen and JP Morgan had no immediate comment. One source told Reuters that bankers had alr...
Tags: France, Ipo, Trends, IPOs, Jp Morgan, Reuters, SocGen, Russian Railways, PSA Group, GEFCO, Gefco IPO GEFC, Societe Generale JP Morgan Citigroup UBS, Credit Suisse A

The CEO of a social media firm valued at $1.8 billion has a plan to survive the mar-tech consolidation thanks to big-name clients like McDonald's and Microsoft

10-year old Sprinklr wants to be one of a handful of marketers' platform of choice for handling social media and messaging. While investors' interest in social media management firms has waned, CEO Ragy Thomas views its software as a service (SaaS) model as well-positioned. Sprinklr is on track to hit between $250 to $300 million in revenue this year and is preparing to go public. Sprinklr has turned the firehose of social media content into big business. Valued at $1.8 billion, the firm has ...
Tags: Apple, Google, Facebook, Adobe, Microsoft, China, Ipo, Trends, Salesforce, Johnson, Sap, United Airlines, Sprinklr, Thomas, McDonald, Marie Kondo

2019 was supposed to be a banner year for IPOs but now it's turning into a 'shitshow'

This year was supposed to be the year of the unicorn IPO, with massively funded private startups like Uber, Lyft and Slack all preparing to go public. Now just two weeks into the year, bankers say it's turning into a "shitshow." The federal government shutdown has left the SEC closed, which means most companies cannot move forward with going public. Market volatility is also roiling markets and creating an unstable environment for soon-to-be public companies. Ask any banker which of the multi...
Tags: Uber, China, Ipo, Trends, SEC, Cloudflare, Donald Trump, King, Securities And Exchange Commission, Holden, Don, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher Flom, Kenton King, Tencent Music, Tom Holden, Ropes Gray Longer

$445 billion flowed into startups in the last five years. Now it's threatening to upend one of Silicon Valley's most celebrated customs (SPOT, GOOGL)

The traditional initial public offering process may be in the process of being disrupted. Spotify went public last year using a different process and may soon be followed by enterprise software company Slack. Startups have good reasons to spurn regular IPOs — they're costly and time-consuming. Thanks to the massive amounts of money that have flowed into Silicon Valley in recent years, many companies are likely well positioned to go public a different way. The avalanche of money that's piled i...
Tags: Google, Spotify, Ipo, Trends, Silicon Valley, University of Florida, Wall Street Journal, Stewart Butterfield, Slack, Securities And Exchange Commission, National Venture Capital Association, Ritter, NVCA, PitchBook, Jay Ritter, Slack Startups

Bio Roundup: #JPM19 Notes, Loxo Buyout, Black Diamond’s Cash & More

Diabetes drugs are Eli Lilly’s bread and butter, but the pharmaceutical giant hasn’t lost its appetite for cancer drugs. It grabbed hold of a few more this week by betting $8 billion on Loxo Oncology.Loxo (NASDAQ: LOXO) has made a name for itself by becoming one of just two companies ever to earn an FDA approval for a drug that targets a tumor’s DNA fingerprint, no matter where in the body that cancer is found. The drug, larotrectinib, targets rare tumor abnormalities known as NTRK fusions. The...
Tags: Deals, Startups, Ipo, Cancer, Trends, Medicare, SEC, Fda, National, GlaxoSmithKline, Allergan, Shire, Biotech, Medical Device, Postpartum Depression, Bernie Sanders

Kaleido Bio and Cirius Join an IPO Queue Stalled by Federal Shutdown

The partial government shutdown may have diminished staffing at the SEC, but it hasn’t dimmed the hopes of biotech firms hoping to go public. On Friday, Kaleido Biosciences and Cirius Therapeutics both filed paperwork for their respective initial public offerings with the securities regulator.While it’s operating with “very limited staff” due to the shutdown, the SEC’s electronic system for regulatory filings is still up and running. Kaleido and Cirius join a handful of biotechs that have filed...
Tags: Startups, Drugs, Ipo, Boston, Trends, Investing, SEC, Biotech, Government Shutdown, Microbiome, Life Sciences, Clinical Trials, Frazier Healthcare Partners, National blog main, Boston blog main, Boston top stories

Uncertainty Grows for Biotech as Government, FDA Shutdown Drags On

The partial government shutdown could soon become the longest shutdown in history, and biotech firms that have submitted regulatory filings are facing greater uncertainty about their future plans. More than 40 percent of FDA workers and thousands at the SEC are furloughed, and FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is resorting to Twitter to post updates about how his agency is using its fast-dwindling funds. Here’s a roundup of how the partial government shutdown is affecting the FDA.On Tuesday, Gott...
Tags: Startups, Ipo, Trends, SEC, Fda, National, Biotech, Government Shutdown, Shutdown, Life Sciences, Clinical Trials, NDA, Gottlieb, Scott Gottlieb, National blog main, New York blog main

FAANG, Public Trust, Valuations, in 2019: The Read from Menlo Ventures

The market caps of some of the most successful tech titans reach as high as $1 trillion. Yet in 2018, perceptions about these dominant companies often reflected uneasiness and doubt—and for some, so did their stock performance.Maybe the mood shift has to do with the fact that the public and government leaders no longer evaluate these tech giants based solely on their spectacular market growth and multi-billion-dollar valuations, but also on the effects of their products, which are woven into al...
Tags: Apple, Google, Amazon, Startups, Facebook, Uber, Microsoft, Privacy, Entrepreneurship, Ipo, Russia, Funding, San Francisco, Trends, Tech, Vc

Uber’s India rival Ola nears $6 billion valuation ahead of huge funding round

Ola, India’s local rival to Uber, has seen its valuation jump to nearly $6 billion as it prepares to take in a large round of financing. The ride-hailing firm, which was founded in 2010, has raised around $3.3 billion from investors to date, and it topped that up a little this week. Ola pulled in 520 crore (around $75 million) from existing investor Steadview Capital, according to filings provided to TechCrunch by business signals platform paper.vc. The paperwork indicates that Ola’s bu...
Tags: Fundings & Exits, TC, Uber, Asia, Australia, Ipo, Collaborative Consumption, India, Softbank, Funding, Tech, Automotive, New Zealand, Tencent, Foodpanda, Food Delivery

OneLogin snares $100M investment to expand identity solution into new markets

OneLogin is not a young startup by any means. The identity access management company was founded in 2009 and has watched while companies like Ping Identity, Duo Security and Okta had tidy exits. But as CEOs are fond of pointing out, the total addressable market is large and where investors see a chance, they take it. Today, the company announced a $100 million investment. The latest round was led by new investors Greenspring Associates and Silver Lake Waterman, the late-stage investing arm of Si...
Tags: Cloud, Asia, Europe, Enterprise, Microsoft, Okta, Ipo, Funding, US, Tech, Onelogin, Brooks, Scale Venture Partners, Greenspring Associates, Silver Lake Waterman, CRV

Crypto mining giant Bitmain is reportedly getting a new CEO as its IPO plan stalls

Bitmain, the Chinese crypto miner maker, looks like it has reached an interesting point in its pathway to going public. There’s been little heard since the company filed to go public in Hong Kong in September, but now it appears that a new CEO has been hired and its two founders are leaving. That’s according to a report from SCMP which — citing two sources — said Wang Haichao, Bitmain’s director of product engineering, has assumed CEO duties following a transition that began in December. Foun...
Tags: Asia, Hong Kong, Money, Finance, China, Ipo, Tech, Ceo, Author, Economy, Bitcoin, Mining, Cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Digital Currencies

With SEC workers offline, the government shutdown could screw IPO-ready companies

The government shutdown has entered into day 19, making it the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history. With President Donald Trump slamming his hands down on a table and storming out of negotiations with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer earlier today, a fast-approaching end feels unlikely. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are out of work as U.S. leaders struggle to reach a fair agreement on the federal budget, including employees of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commiss...
Tags: Startups, Lyft, Uber, Chuck, Pinterest, Ipo, Tech, SEC, Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump, Wall Street Journal, Nancy, Cnbc, Exit, Trump, Donald J Trump

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says there's a chance the company may not IPO in 2019 after all

Uber is in no rush to go public this year, according to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Khosrowshahi told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Tuesday that he and investors would be "disappointed" if there was no IPO but that "the company would be just fine." The comments appear to be a softening of Khosrowshahi's position from last year, when he consistently said Uber was "on track" for a 2019 initial public offering. Uber may not go public this year after all, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has ...
Tags: Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Uber, Ipo, Samsung, Trends, Goldman Sachs, Toyota, Morgan Stanley, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Facebook Apple, Dara Khosrowshahi, Khosrowshahi, Dara Khosrowshahi Khosrowshahi

Gulf IPO outlook hinges on oil prices, secondary markets: Kamco

Gulf IPO outlook hinges on oil prices, secondary markets: Kamco:The outlook for initial public offerings (IPO) in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) this year will depend on secondary equity markets and oil price stability, even as the GCC sovereigns continue to propel the non-oil economy by largely maintaining their budget spending, according to Kamco Research."The issuers are likely to watch the development of secondary markets early on in 2019, and also ascertain whether taking the debt mark...
Tags: Travel, Ipo, GCC, KAMCO, Rupert Neil Bumfrey, Gulf Co, KAMCO Research, Council GCC

Bio Roundup: $74B for Celgene, Two CAR-T Tales, Ready for SF & More

In 2018, my Exome colleagues and I published hundreds of stories about health, medicine, the biopharma industry, government policy, and more. You’ll find a few of our favorite stories in this review of some of the year’s best from across the Xconomy network. Topics ranged from the worries over CRISPR genome editing and Wild West biohacking, to Nobel Prize-fueled drug approvals and the headaches around drug prices (even for drugs meant to cure headaches).What will make our Best of 2019 list? You...
Tags: Ipo, Trends, CMO, Merck, Ceo, Vc, Lung Cancer, Fundraising, Venture Capital, M&a, Private Equity, Fda, National, Manufacturing, Immunotherapy, Abbvie