IPOs

It will take a ‘bulletproof’ startup to break the IPO logjam • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 31, 2022Posted in EC Newsletter, EC venture capital, IPOs, M&A, Startups, The Exchange, VentureNo Comments

That Intel managed to spin out Mobileye as a public company was good news of sorts for the technology exit market. But a single successful corporate spinout is not a sign that public-market tech debuts are back. Indeed, with news that Instacart is now pushing for a 2023 IPO, the upcoming calendar for tech exits (apart from M&A) is more than weak. It’s moribund. Perhaps that’s why the Twitter-Musk saga — an anti-IPO in that we’re seeing the social media company go private — is consuming so much oxygen: There’s not that much else going on when it comes to fascinating exits. Well, the UserTesting sale aside, I suppose. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on ZebethMedia+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. What we care about is understanding when IPOs may return, as they could provide another method by which late-stage startups can raise capital. Currently, there’s concern that some unicorns are uninvestable and will therefore die. More capital to the cohort of billion-dollar startups could alleviate some of those pressures, not to mention help confirm the new pricing chart for startup shares.

Maybe we didn’t deserve any IPOs this year • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 17, 2022Posted in EC Newsletter, EC venture capital, IPOs, startup exits, Startups, The Exchange, VentureNo Comments

From one perspective, DoorDash is a bargain today. The same goes for Coinbase, UiPath, AppLovin, Oscar Health, Bumble, and Qualtrics. Indeed, if you pick nearly any 2021 technology IPO and compare its debut price to where it trades today, you will find that the market is offering yesteryear’s standouts at a massive discount. So much of a discount that it’s hard to not wonder if at least part of the reticence of the 2022 IPO market is not predicated on macro conditions, but the more specific — dare we say microeconomic? — awful performance of the public debuts that we saw last year. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on ZebethMedia+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. The declines in question are not small, and they are not merely extant when measured from all-time highs. We’re talking bad returns here from the perspective of any time frame. Part of the issue is the simple fact that 2021 valuations were higher than what we see today. It is valid to handicap negative outcomes with pertinent fluctuations in the underlying market; that said, we often cannot provide enough handicapping to get anywhere close to eliminating the fact that so very many 2021 tech IPOs were, from a returns perspective, hot garbage once they were floated.