s-1
Latest
Just like Lyft, Uber has confidentially filed for its IPO
On Thursday we learned Lyft filed papers for an initial public offering set to take place in 2019, and Friday evening some "people familiar with its plans" said the same to the Wall Street Journal about ride-hailing rival Uber. According to the New York Times, Uber also filed its paperwork with the SEC on Thursday, setting the stage for both companies to compete over who can get their shares on the market first. Ever since replacing Travis Kalanick last year, getting the company through its IPO has been a major consideration for CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, and this news means it could happen sooner than previously-anticipated, moving it from mid- or late 2019 to the first quarter of the year. These transportation apps have seen some of the biggest growth lately, but they're not the only tech companies preparing to go public, with others like Slack and Airbnb potentially in line. The companies have similar incentives with employees and investors alike waiting to cash in, amid worries of a possible recession and the issue that both are reportedly unprofitable. Bankers have apparently estimated Uber's IPO value at $120 billion, well above the $72 billion estimate from its last round of funding so you can see why they would want to strike.
Vizio IPO plan shows how its TVs track what you're watching
While the past few years have been tough for many TV makers (Panasonic, Pioneer, Toshiba, Sony, just to name a few), Vizio has continued to grow its business, and now it's ready to go public. Vizio has made its name with impressive value-priced TVs that don't skimp on features (it's also a leader in the soundbar market, and has made attempts at selling tablets and phones too). According to the filing, Vizio has sold more than 15 million smart TVs, with about 61 percent of them connected as of the end of June. While viewers are benefiting from those connections, streaming over 3 billion hours of content, Vizio says it's watching them too, with Inscape software embedded in the screens that can track anything you're playing on it -- even if it's from cable TV, videogame systems and streaming devices.
Twitter's updated IPO plans reveal TWTR stock on NYSE, 232 million active users
Twitter isn't a public company just yet, but its updated S-1 filing hit today and showed how it's grown in the last three months. While it showed 218 million monthly active users by the end of June, its Q3 stats have grown to 232 million (53 million of them are in the US). While the number of users accessing the service from mobile devices grew slightly from 75 to 76 percent, ad revenue on mobile grew 37 percent since the last report, compared to other revenue which was up 9 percent. It's making more money too, with revenue for the quarter of $168.6 million, up from $139 million in Q2 and $82 million for the same period last year. If you want to invest in the right stock at its IPO, look for TWTR on the NYSE -- until then prospective investors can dig through the financial data here and follow the @TwitterIR account for updates.
Twitter makes $1 billion IPO filing public, confirms over 215 million monthly active users
Less than a month after announcing its plans for an IPO, Twitter has today made its S-1 filing with the SEC public, offering the most detailed look yet at at the inner workings of the company. With the IPO, Twitter is looking to raise $1 billion on 472,613,753 shares of common stock, trading under the stock symbol TWTR. In the filing, the company also confirmed that it now has 218.3 million monthly active users (or MAUs) according to its most recent numbers, and that it pulled in $253.6 million in revenue for the six months ending June 30th, 2013, an increase of 107 percent from a year earlier. According to the company, mobile users unsurprisingly account for a particularly big chunk of its business, with 75 percent of its average MAUs accessing Twitter from a mobile device in the three months ending June 30, 2013, and mobile use accounting for 65 percent of its advertising revenue. It still isn't making a profit, though, with the company seeing a net loss of $69.3 million for the aforementioned six month period. That's compared to $316.9 million in revenue for all of 2012, and a net loss of $79.4 million. Of those 215 million MAUs, 49.2 million are in the United States, while 169.1 million are international, representing an increase of 35% and 47%, respectively, from the same period a year ago. Beyond those numbers, the company has also revealed the number of Timeline views for the first time; they stood at 150.9 billion for the three months ending June 30th, and 287.2 billion for six months prior (up 69% and 79% from a year earlier). On average, that translates to 691 timeline views per MAU for the same three month period, although that number jumps a fair bit looking just at US Twitter users -- they rack up 825 timeline views on average. In a brief letter to shareholders included in the filing, the company says "Twitter represents a service shaped by the people, for the people," and that "the mission we serve as Twitter, Inc. is to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly without barriers," adding, "our business and revenue will always follow that mission in ways that improve–and do not detract from–a free and global conversation." Those interested in digging into all of the numbers can find the full filing on the SEC's website.
Facebook updates S-1, adds Q1 earnings, revenue up 45% over last year
Facebook just filed an amended S-1 (that all important document that officially announces its public offering plans) with some new financial info. Now included in the charts and graphs is everything you wanted to know about Q1 of 2012 at Facebook (but were afraid to ask). The new SEC filing reveals that revenues are way up at the social network over last year (a whopping 45 percent higher than Q1 of 2011), but down slightly from last quarter (six percent), settling at a more than respectable $1.058 billion. Of the cash it took in, $872 million of it was ad revenue, which is down from Q4 of 2011 ($943 million) but up significantly from Q1 of last year ($731 million). Facebook was even able to slap a per-user amount on its 900 million active monthly members -- $1.21 -- that's the average revenue for each person with an account at the site. Of course, membership has continued to grow, with 532 million stopping by daily, up from 372 million just a year ago. As for that Instagram purchase, it looks like the widely reported $1 billion figure wasn't entirely accurate -- at least not when talking cold, hard cash. Only $300 million was turned over in immediately spendable currency, the rest of the deal involved 23 million shares of common stock. If you're a sucker for financials hit up the source link.
Zynga reveals intent to go public
Zynga today announced the launch of its new, sure-to-be-massive 'Ville social game, in which players from disparate backgrounds will be able to log on, buy a portion of a company through microtransactions and watch their profits grow! This new venture differs from other Zynga hits like FarmVille and FrontierVille in just a few key ways. 1. It doesn't actually have "Ville" in the title. 2. Players play with actual, totally real money. 3. Players' company won't necessarily grow. In fact, it may shrink through no fault of their own. 4. The company is Zynga, which made almost $600 million in revenue in 2010. 5. It's not a game, but a stock offering. OK, so maybe Zynga's filing of an S-1 form, detailing its intent to become a publicly traded company at some point in the future, isn't a new game announcement. But if you guys know of a better way to trick you into reading a story involving both the stock market and casual games, we'd love to hear it.
