Airbnb on Wednesday confidentially filed its paperwork for an initial public offering.- Though it could still postpone or cancel the
IPO , the move is the biggest indicator yet that it plans to go public this year. - The filing was widely anticipated. CEO
Brian Chesky told employees last month Airbnb was moving forward with its IPO efforts. - The move comes despite the fact that the online
travel company's business was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Its revenue was down 67% in the second quarter, as countries around the world shut down their economies and limited the movement of their citizens.
Airbnb just gave its biggest indication yet that it plans to go through with an initial public offering this year, confidentially filing its paperwork for an IPO.
The company, which $4, declined to say when it expected to go through with the offering, how many shares it planned to sell, or what price it expected to offer them at.
Going into this year, Airbnb was widely expected to go public in 2020. But that was before its business was slammed by the coronavirus crisis. With countries around the world shutting down their economies and limiting the movement of their citizens, the travel industry collapsed and Airbnb's revenues went down with it. In May, CEO Brian Chesky $4.
To steady the business, Chesky $4, $4, $4, and $4. As part of its debt financing, Airbnb $4.
But by then, Airbnb was already bouncing back. By the end of that month, the number of global vacation rental bookings — Airbnb's market — $4. Still, the company's revenue in the second quarter fell to $335 million, $4.
Airbnb has been under pressure to go public
Even so, the company's IPO filing has since been widely anticipated. Chesky $4. And The Wall Street Journal reported last week $4.
Airbnb has been under pressure to go public this year. Stock options held by some of its earliest employees are slated to expire this fall if they aren't exercised before then. Employees typically can't afford to exercise their options unless they can immediately turn around and sell their shares to the public.
It's important to note that while Airbnb filed its paperwork, this doesn't mean it will go public. Postmates $4 but never went public, announcing last month that it had $4 instead. Similarly, DoorDash $4 in February but has yet to go public or move forward with the process.
Airbnb's announcement Wednesday indicates it plans to go public using the traditional IPO method. In such a process, companies issue new shares that they immediately turn around and sell to big investors, raising cash in the process. The investors then sell some of those shares on a stock exchange, creating a public market for them.
Before the pandemic, Airbnb was widely expected to go public using an alternate process, a direct listing. That method is typically less costly than a traditional IPO, but companies can't use it to raise funds for their treasuries. Rather than the company itself selling shares to the public, its shareholders sell stock in a direct listing.
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