Slack is reportedly planning to go public through a direct listing rather than an IPO

Slack

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield.

• Slack will go public through a direct listing rather than an IPO, The Wall Street Journal reports.
• The workplace messaging service is aiming to list between April and June.
• Slack had previously hired investment bank Goldman Sachs Group to lead its initial public offering.

Slack is planning to go public through a direct listing, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Slack, which operates a popular workplace instant-messaging and collaboration app, is likely to debut in the second quarter and currently expects to do so via a direct listing, according to the report.

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Slack was valued at $7.1 billion in August after raising $427 million in an investment round led by Dragoneer Investment Group and General Atlantic. The company has 8 million daily active users.

Read more: Slack has only 8 million daily active users but would very much like that to become 500 million

The plan for direct listing will potentially make Slack the second big technology company after Spotify Technology SA to bypass a traditional IPO, WSJ reported.

Slack had previously hired investment bank Goldman Sachs Group to lead its initial public offering as an underwriter, Reuters reported in December.

Slack did not immediately respond to a request for comment.