Articles tagged “ipo”

Airbnb's Chesky undoubtably still has that S-1 document in a laptop somewhere. With the pandemic lowering Airbnb's valuation by billions, that document will need a total rewrite. And with all that's going on in the world, it's difficult to even contemplate an eventual public listing right now.

Many of Airbnb's previous funding rounds were oversubscribed. But if Airbnb indeed taps new venture capital funding, it won't have trouble finding benefactors. Still, the company's valuation will be considerably lower than the prior $31 billion.

Sporting some red ink in its financial results doesn't spell doom and gloom for Airbnb's prospects of going public in 2020. On the other hand, the question for employees and investors becomes — at what valuation?

It's all about its anticipated public offering at Airbnb these days. Shore up the plethora of safety issues, make peace with regulators, and bring in seasoned operational executives that the Wall Street crowd will look favorably upon. Was Belinda Johnson a casualty in that push?

WeWork's implosion is putting pressure on all of SoftBank's investments, Oyo included. If it's not changing course already, the budget hotel chain may soon have to decide whether, as CEO Ritesh Agarwal put it, to grow fast or grow right.

Airbnb has avoided these policies under the guise of being just a platform, much like the rest of the tech platform companies. We just hope at some point that tragedies are not the only way to propel change that lots of stakeholders have been asking for all along.

House parties and out-of-control guests are the scourge of Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms. The industry has to fix this — fast.

Is everything on target in the evolution of Airbnb's Experiences business? It's clearly not profitable yet after three years, and the leadership change at the top signals problems. That doesn't mean it's fatally flawed although this isn't precisely the portrait you want to paint on the cusp of Airbnb going public next year.

Airbnb has always put itself out there as not just another startup or your grandmother's online travel agency. Going the direct listing route, as opposed to a far costlier initial public offering, could fit in nicely with that narrative.

With consumers much more aware of the damaging environmental impact of air travel, other forms of transport are having a moment. It might be a good time for Trainline's private equity owners to sell up.