Category Archives: IPO

by | February 3, 2017 · 10:00 am

The parent of Snapchat are going public

Snapchat is one of the biggest favorite apps in the social media universe at the moment. Its founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy filed confidentially to go public with SEC late last year, and now they are ready to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SNAP.

Snap`s revenue rose to $404,5 million, which is eight times higher than their revenue in 2015. In Q4 Snap had 158 million daily active users (up 48%), and many of my friends and family members are one of them. 2,5 billion Snaps are created every day.

 

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Snap Inc is a camera company, and in the SEC filings they say: “We blive that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate.

Our products empower people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together».

Worldwide advertising spend is expected to grow from $652 billion in 2016 to $767 billion in 2020. The fastest growing segment is mobile advertising, which is expected to grow nearly 3x from $66 billion in 2016 to $196 billion in 2020.

Snap belive that one of the major factors driving this growth is the shift of people`s attention from their televisions to their mobile phones. According to Nielsen, people between the ages of 18 and 24 spent 35% less time watching traditional television in an average month during the second quarter of 2016 compared to the second quarter of 2010.

A huge difference between Facebook at Twitter is that Snap Inc doesnt have their own server farm, which makes it more expensive which means Snaps earnings can look much lower that those who have their own server farm.

Snap Inc lost $514 million in 2016, which is up from about $373 million. Some of that money goes to Google because Snap Inc rents storage and server space from them. New legislation that would change U.S, or foreign taxation of international business activities or other tax-reform policies could also seriously harm their business.

Benchmark Capital owns about 10% og the company. Lightspeed Venture Partners owns 8,3%, and Institutional Venture Partners owns 4%.

Snap are looking to raise up to $3 billion, and Snaps offering is being led by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Morgan Stanley won the desired «lead left» position on the prospectus. The bank also led Facebooks initial public offering.

 

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Shiny bull. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Shiny bull nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in precious metal products, commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Shiny bull and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

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by | June 17, 2015 · 5:58 pm

Fitbit IPO thursday

Fitbit are ready to go public and the pioneer in wearable fitness-tracking devices will raise more than $600 million as soon as later on today, and this will be the fifth-largest U.S IPO in 2015. The company will go public tomorrow, on thursday.

Innovalon Holdings raised $685. GoDaddy raised $520, while Etsy raised $307. As you can see, Fitbit would be one of the largest tech debuts so far in 2015.

 

 

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Some investors are sceptical about the company and its shares. Are they able to compete against Apple Watch, they said? According to Nasdaq their share price is set to $17 – $19 each share, and shares offered/outstanding is 34,500,000.

The company has a strong revenue growth and annual profit, and there is a strong buzz among investors before they go public, and this is building up a strong demand for Fitbit`s shares. The firm will be valued at $3,7 billion with its estimated price range of $17 – $19 a share.

Fitbit doubled the number of devices sold to 10,9 million from 4,5 million between 2013 and 2014. Revenue tripled in the same period. Net income for 2014 came in at $132, on $745 million in revenue. It is expected to see revenue at $1,4 billion in 2015 and $1,7 billion in 2016.

Fitbit is more like GoPro Inc. GoPro went public last year and the stock more than tripled in October last year. Fitbit has a lower valuation and trade at 21,6 times the past years reported earnings through March 31, compared with 82 times for GoPro, FactSet data show.

Some Fitbit customers has experienced an allergic reaction on their wrists, but others are obviously happy with the new product like the U.S President Barack Obama which is a user of this «hot new trend» right now.

The wearable devices can track daily steps calories burned and floors climbed, as well as sleep duration and quality. Fitbit have many different wearable devices and some of them can track your heart rate and collect information about distance, speed and exercise routes.

I have had my wearable device in 20 years, but now it has become mainstream. A hot trend. I will be very surprised if this products over goes the mobile trend. A mobile phone is a «must have», but a wearable device like Fitbit is a «funny-thing-to-have».

Fitbit will start trading Thursday morning on NYSE under the symbol «FIT».

 

Click the link below and check out the Fan Fund

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fan-fund-tickets-15580655159

 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Shiny bull. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Shiny bull nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in precious metal products, commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Shiny bull and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. UA-63539824-1.

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by | January 12, 2015 · 8:38 pm

Pinterest IPO

The biggest IPO last year was without any doubt Alibaba. It was the biggest IPO in history. How is it gonna be in 2015? Let`s face it; it`s not enough money out there to soak up all the shares, so I don`t think we will see a new Alibaba IPO in the near future.

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But there are many other interesting small companies planning to go public, and pinterest is one of them. Rumours have been in the market for a long time, but nothing have happened. They maybe think that 2015 is a bad timing?

Pinterest was first conceptualized in December 2009 by cofounders Ben Siberman, Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra. The first prototype was launched in March 2010 and made available to a small group of colleagues and family members.

Baby photos and snapshots are still hot and people are still in love with social networking. Millions of people use social networking every day and Facebook is still the leader in this market. Facebook should pay attention to mobile social networking like Pinterest because here is where the next phase of growth is in the future.

Facebook is the biggest followed by Twitter, but what most people don`t know is that right behind Twitter is Pinterest. Facebook and Twitter is both noted on the stock exchange and the third biggest can be the next to go public.

Pinterest is revolutionising the world of interior design and the usage in Britain grew by about 130 percent last year. Millions of home dècor pins are pinned to the site every day. The site is not only a site for pinners.

It can also be a great commercial tool, and the site is one of the fastest growing platform for online content sharing, which means a good place to be for small businesses. If you ar more interesting in sport, food, cars, finance or business, you can simply save interesting articles with the Pinterest browser button.

The most popular categories on Pinterest are food & drink, DIY & crafts, woman`s apparel, home decor and travel.

Pinterest offers a visual discovery, collection sharing and storage tool, and the users can create and share the collections of visual bookmarks (boards). Boards can develop projects, organize events, or save pictures and data together.

Boards are created through a user selecting an item, page, website, etc, and pinning it to an existing or newly created board. Users save ans share pins from multiple resources onto boards based on a plethora of criteria, e.g similar characteristics, a theme, birthday parties, planning a vacation, writing a book, interior decorating or holidays.

This is a free website that requires registration to use. Once you are registered, you can upload, sort and manage images (known as pins) and other media content (video, images) through collections known as pinboards. No advertisements are displayed but companies have pinboards displaying their products.

Pinterest allows businesses to create pages aimed at promoting their companies online. Such pages can serve as a «virtual storefront». In a case study of a fashion website, users visiting from Pinterest spent $180 compared to $85 spent from users coming from Facebook. Studies also showed that Pinterest is more effective at driving sales than other forms of social media.

In early 2011, the company secured a $10 million USD Series A financing led by Jeremy Levine and Sarah Tavel of Bessemer Venture Partners. In October , after an introduction from Kevin Hartz and Jeremy Stoppelman, the company secured $27 million USD in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, which valued the company at $200 million USD. In May 2015, Pinterest was valued at $5 billion.

If you have your dream house, you should start on a Pinterest board.

 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Shiny bull. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Shiny bull nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in precious metal products, commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Shiny bull and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

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by | December 5, 2014 · 8:21 pm

Azul and Virgin America IPO

Azul SA is Brazil`s third-biggest airline after TAM and GOL, founded by David Neelman, who also founded JetBlue Airways Corp (JBLU.O). They may become No. 1 as Azul could offer about 3,000 more seats than their biggest competitors. Azul has a 15,9% market share and is the fastest growing airline in Brazil based on passenger kilometers flown, according to the National Civil Aviation Agency. Azul had $1,64 billion (4,2 billion reais) in revenue for the fist nine months in 2014.

Azul

Neelman left JetBlue Airways Corp in 2008 to launch the Brazilian carrier, which is his fourth airline startup.

David Neelman`s family is American, but he was born in Brazil and has Brazilian citizenship. That`s important, because Brazilian law forbids majority foreign ownership of airlines.

Azul SA revived plans for an IPO in Sao Paulo and New York. According to the U.S SEC filing, Azul plans to list referred shares on the Level 2 chapter of the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange, and American depositary shares on the New York Stock Exchange. It doesn`t say when the IPO will take place.

So far, they expect the IPO will be worth around $1 billion. Neelman owns 67% of voting shares and 4,58% of outstanding preferred shares. The private equity firms TPG Growth, Weston Presidio, Grupo Bozano, and Gàveo Investimentos, which is owned by J.P. Morgan, also own stakes in Azul Airline. The shareholders in Azul may sell an unspecified portion of their shares as part of the offering.

According to Azul`s prospectus, the money raised will be used to finance expansion plans and to pay down debt. They plan to buy 38 Airbus A320neo jets and lease 25 more. They have also begun international service with the first flight connecting Brazil and the U.S. In April, they announced plans to start flights to southern Florida early next year, followed by flights to New York, using a dozen leased wide-body jets, first A330-200 and then A350-900 aircraft.

Azul`s president Antonoaldo Neves said they are going to grow the cake, not steel from their competitors. He also said there`s no reason the market can`t double. Brazil`s airline association has said domestic demand is expected to rise to about 200 million passengers by 2020. That`s up 100%.

The IPO comes during a periode with few Brazilian offerings, as the equity issuance market stagnated this year as the economy slipped into a technical recession in the first half of 2014. The falling petroleum prices is helping airline stocks around the world, so the timing could be good. (Read my article “Airlines hammered”, October 14, 2014).

Sir Richard Branson know that. Delta (DAL) and JetBlue (JBLU) are both up over 50% this year. He`s low-cost airline Virgin America (VA) made an impressive debut on Nasdaq. The stock jumped 30,43% to close at $30 on November 2014. Virgin America raised $307 million through the offering.

Virgin America is the U.S offshoot of Branson`s London-based Virgin Group. Branson, through VX Holdings LP, own 24,8% stake after the IPO. The biggest shareholder with 32,8% is the Hedge fund Cyrus Capital Partners LP.

Virgin America has had a troubled time ever since its launch in 2007, and witnessed profits for the first time in 2013. Third quarter profits climbed about 24% buoyed by an increase in passenger traffic and higher fare rates. Revenue was up 4,7%, totaling $405,5 million.

Take note that Virgin America is the only U.S airline company to have gone public since another low-cost carrier, Spirit Airlines went public in 2011. Can Virgin America win this battle with their Wi-Fi service and comfortable leather seats? Will a hip airline work on Wall Street?

Anyway, it`s gonna be hard for Virgin America to fight with big players like American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines. It`s not going to be easy for Azul either, but investors will not ignore their growth in the future. Nor Azul and Virgin`s competitors.

 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Shiny bull. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Shiny bull nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in precious metal products, commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Shiny bull and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

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by | November 24, 2014 · 8:46 pm

Airbnb IPO

Sharing economy has become very popular and companies like Uber and Airbnb has caused a paradigm shift in the travel business, and Airbnb are now planning to go public. That can happen as soon as next year.

airbnb

The privately owned company Airbnb is founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky (CEO), Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk. The firm is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Airbnb is a website for people to rent out lodging. Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site. Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users, reviews by previous guests, as well as a response rating and private messaging system.

Airbnb have just completed its latest round of fundraising, giving it a valuation of more than $10 billion. The company serves 1 million guests each month, with over 800,000 listings in more than 190 countries.

As of July 2011, the company had raised $119,8 million in venture funding from different partners. In April 2014, Airbnb closed on an investment of $450 million by TPG Capital at a valuation of approximately $10 billion.

Revenue is expected to reach as much as $1 billion in 2015, and that`s a big jump from $250 million in 2013. Airbnb could be the worlds second largest «hotel» company if it surpasses Starwood and Marriott, trailing only Hilton. It`s already bigger than Wyndham and Hyatt hotel chains with their valuation of $10 billion.

Airbnb is growing. In May 2011, they acquired a German competitor, Accoleo. That`s their fist international Airbnb office in Hamburg. In October same year, they established its second international office in London.

In 2012, they opened six more offices in cities like Paris, Milan, Barcelona, Moscow, Sao Paulo and Copenhagen. Their European headquarters would be located in Dublin. In 2012, they said they had focus on Australia, the second largest Airbnb market behind the United States, as well as Thailand and Indonesia.

They have earlier announced its strategy to move more aggressively into the Asian market with the launch of their newest headquarers in Singapore. The company`s goal is to acquire an additional 2 million properties within the continent.

I have earlier talked about Uber and their challenges. Some people say their business is illegal and so is it about Airbnb. Other people say their business model has raised legal concerns. Especially in New York, where state Attorney General Eric Schnederman launched a probe into the business. He suggest that more than half of Airbnb`s New York listings could be illegal.

Airbnb still belive in their business model and continue to work on an IPO.

 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Shiny bull. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Shiny bull nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in precious metal products, commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Shiny bull and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

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