Slack has announced that it plans to go public on June 20, and has also disclosed its estimated preliminary financial results for Q1 of 2019.
Slack is seeking to go public through a direct listing instead of an IPO
The workplace messaging software company declared revenues of approximately $134 million, a 66 percent increase from $81 million in the Q1 of 2018. During the same time the company released its S-1, and a pitch from the executive team to prospective shareholders.
“People deserve to do the best work of their lives,” Slack co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield said in a video accompaniment to the company’s investor day live stream. “This desire of feeling aligned with your team, of removing confusion, of getting clarity, the desire for support in doing the best work of your life. That’s universal, that’s deeply human. It appeals to people with all kinds of roles, in all kinds of industries, at all scales of organization and all cultures.”
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The Vancouver-founded company has been priced at more than $7 billion USD, and initially announced it would go public last month during the same time it announced a series of new services. Slack is seeking to go public through a direct listing instead of an IPO, which has been the customary route for companies like Uber, Alphabet, and Facebook.
Last year, Slack declared $400.6 million in revenue and a net loss of $138.9 million, contrasting a revenue of $220.5 million and a loss of $140.1 million for the year before. In its S-1, the company said its losses were incurred from costs associated with scaling the business and capitalizing on its market opportunity.
Slack is among a number of high-profile companies to go public for this year. Uber and Lyft experienced disappointing first weeks, while Zoom Video Communications, Pinterest, and Canadian-founded PagerDuty have also gone public with relative success. Slack said it plans to commence trading on the New York Stock Exchange as “SK,” and has so far brought on Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Allen & Company to be financial advisors on the listing.
The company announced it plans to report detailed Q1 results on June 10, ten days before the company is set to go public. Slack’s vice president of investor relations, Jesse Hulsing, said the June listing date is still subject to change.
Image courtesy Slack
