Roku prices IPO at high end of expectations

Investors appear to have a new-found appetite for tech.

Streaming player Roku, its initial public offering priced at $14 a share at the top of its range, saw its shares soar nearly 68 percent on its first day of trading on Thursday.

“There has been a lot of pent-up demand,” Triton Research’s Everett Wallace told The Post. “There was a real scarcity in the market. So when there’s something to buy, and it’s priced right, it blows up.”

Triton Adds the D. E. Shaw Group as an Investor to Expand its Financial Data and Analysis Platform

Triton, the developer of a financial data and analysis platform that uses technology to power data-driven investment and acquisition decisions, announced an investment today from the D. E. Shaw group.

The financing will further development of Triton’s intelligence platform, which capitalizes on the recent phenomenon of geometrically-expanding and diversifying data to understand companies in atomic detail.  Innovative companies are often difficult to analyze with traditional data and accounting systems, and Triton seeks to make capital allocation to this growth sector more rational and data-driven.

“We are delighted to work with Triton to explore new data methodologies for finance,” said Alexander Wong, a managing director at the D. E. Shaw group.

“Triton is excited to welcome the D. E. Shaw group as its first institutional investor, joining individual investors experienced in financial data and financial services, and furthering our goal of producing scaled and institutional-grade data solutions,” said Triton CEO Rett Wallace.  “The D. E. Shaw group’s position as an innovator in financial technology aligns perfectly with our mission at Triton.”

Blue Apron, Struggling to Woo Investors, Lowers Price Range for IPO

Blue Apron Holdings Inc. is struggling to win over investors in its initial public offering, and now expects to sell shares at a lower price than originally targeted.

A weak pricing of a well-known startup would be a disappointing development for the IPO market, which after a dismal 2016 has been on the rebound in the first half of 2017.

Blue Apron filed early Wednesday to lower the expected price range for its shares to $10 to $11 apiece, below the $15 to $17 it sought earlier, according to regulatory filings.

Peter Lee, a data scientist at Triton Research LLC, which analyzes pre-IPO companies, said that Blue Apron will likely impress some investors with its consistent revenue growth, but it’s unclear how it will transform into a company with strong profit margins given the complexity of food distribution and lack of customer loyalty.

Help wanted at Uber: $69 billion company has no CEO

Now what? The brash founder has been ousted. The board, which still includes the ex-CEO, must right a company that’s veered seriously off course.

“One scenario is that it takes the visionary founder genius to hold the whole place together,” said Rett Wallace, founder of Triton Research, which analyzes tech companies for investors. “The alternative narrative is that Uber has built a very scalable mousetrap so it continues to run at scale.”

Wall Street’s Endangered Species: The College Jock

When Michael Savini came to Wall Street in 2006, banks and brokers had stocked their annual recruiting classes with a preponderance of new hires who shared at least one thing in common: They’d played college sports.

Yet these days, when he attends mixers for former wrestlers in finance, Mr. Savini, 42 years old, says he hears more gripes than enthusiasm. If college athletes asked him for advice in pursuing a career on the trading floor, he said, his message would be a simple one.

Don’t.

“These guys are on the wrong side of Moore’s Law,” said Rett Wallace, a former investment banker, referring to the axiom on the exponential growth of computing power. “When Airbnb can handle two million unique properties at once, and Uber can manage more than a million drivers around the world in real time, are we really saying that a few hundred thousand bond issues can’t be traded by computer?” said Mr. Wallace, who now runs Triton Research, a provider of data on technology companies. “It’s only a matter of time before this is figured out.”

Tech Founders Want IPO Riches Without Those Pesky Shareholders

In a growing number of stock offerings, insiders wind up with far more votes than shares; Snap’s new shareholders get no say.

Silicon Valley Startups Favor IPOs Over Deals as M&A Languishes

When it comes to choosing an exit, some closely held technology companies are betting they can get richer valuations from a public listing than from being acquired.

Until recently, startups could count on generous private funding, with the associated generous implied valuations, and avoid the perceived hassle of being accountable to public investors. If a company had both exit options on the table — an IPO or an outright sale — the sale option looked attractive.

At the moment, their faith is in the public markets, where they are betting valuations will be more generous over time than what an acquirer would be willing to pay. For private targets, that means an IPO. For public targets, it’s in their best interests to stay independent.

“An M&A buyer would have to buy the whole company and fund the losses,” said Rett Wallace, chief executive officer at Triton Research Inc., which analyzes Silicon Valley companies preparing to go public. “An IPO would be preferable to having the screws put to you by a buyer.”

Following Its Blockbuster IPO, Snap Now Faces Some Growing Pains

Wall Street is still seemingly abuzz with excitement after Snap made its blockbuster debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, marking the first tech IPO to go public this year. 

With a market cap of more than $30 billion, Snap is now more valuable than Twitter and Viacom, and isn’t far behind eBay and Tesla Motors. The company now has about $2.3 billion in cash to use for acquisitions, new hires, product development or whatever else it chooses to do. 

Snap has hired a number account executives — employees who manage and seek out brand partnerships and other business opportunities — leading up to its IPO. The company is also seeking to hire more than a dozen ad-related positions ranging from sales operations associates and marketing managers to product managers. 

 

Snap Inc. set to price its IPO at $17 per share

Snap, the parent company of the social network Snapchat, priced its initial public offering at $17 a share — above the expected $14 to $16 a share range.

The oversubscribed IPO, which will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning, is valued at $24 billion.

It’s likely to be the biggest tech IPO this year, Wall Street watchers say.

“We’re not sure there will be any other whoppers this year,” Everett Wallace of Triton Research said.

Snap’s marketing of itself as not only a social network, but a company that makes wearable technology, cameras and glasses pits it against some more established
companies, Wallace said.

“You could buy Twitter and Fitbit and GoPro and Warby Parker and still have $6 billion left over to buy the USS George Herbert Walker Bush, a nuclear aircraft carrier” Wallace said.

Snap IPO boils down to one question: Do you trust Evan Spiegel?

Investors in the coming initial public offering of Snap Inc. will buy into an unprecedented corporate governance structure that won’t give them a voice, instead placing all the power in a pair of 20-something executives who have not proven they are worthy of such trust.

Buying shares in Snap amounts to a risky bet on the two co-founders, Chief Executive Evan Spiegel, 26, and Chief Technology Officer Robert Murphy, 28. The two former Stanford University fraternity brothers have a combined 88.6% of the voting power in the company, which will not be diluted because the shares issued in the IPO will have absolutely no voting power.

“They have the full suite of protections for management and the historic owners, plus the unprecedented protection that the stock they are selling to the public is nonvoting,” said Rett Wallace, co-founder and CEO of Triton in New York, which provides data and analysis on private companies.

“A cynic would say they are almost anticipating unhappy shareholders, as they have made unprecedented efforts to remove the levers uppity shareholders pull to express themselves,” Wallace of Triton said. “If they thought it was going to be a rough ride, they have prepared themselves very well to ride it out.”

Snap bets on hardware as Facebook threat looms

Snap Inc takes to the road in London on Monday to promote its initial public offering with a daring proposition: that it can build hot-selling hardware gadgets and ad-friendly software features fast enough to stay one step ahead of Facebook.

Snap’s IPO filing reads “as if all the hard things in front of them that they have to do are already done,” said Rett Wallace, cofounder and chief executive at Triton Research. But, he said, that’s not the case. “How will they hold up against all the guys you don’t want to be fighting against in the world – Facebook, Google and Apple?”

Snap’s IPO Roadshow: What You Need to Know

With Snap Inc. set to roadshow its IPO, Triton CEO Rett Wallace joins Paul Vigna, Stephen Grocer and Maureen Farrell to break down everything you need to know if you’re thinking of buying stock.

Will Snap Pop? Investors Seem Skeptical

Snap Inc., parent of the hot disappearing-message app Snapchat, has a lofty valuation, hordes of coveted young users and social cachet. It also has a lot of Wall Street investors who aren’t buying the hype.

Many are concerned about slowing user growth, particularly since the rapid rise in popularity of the Snapchat social-messaging platform has been a top justification for the company’s valuation.

“The argument here is, ‘We’re going to build this huge audience and monetization will follow,’” said Rett Wallace, chief executive at Triton Research LLC, whose firm collects and analyzes data on companies. He added that before looking at Snap’s prospectus, many investors were hoping for answers about how to make money off Snapchat’s growing user base. Now there is a question about whether Snap can build that huge audience, he said.

Research analysts culled at top investment banks

Snapchat: Worries before the stock exchange

Investors hesitate with the entry, because the advertising possibilities on Snapchat are unclear. 

Can Snapchat’s Culture of Secrecy Survive an IPO?

Investors who buy into public offerings know it’s riskier to bet on a company with a shorter financial history. That’s why the IPO process is so critical: It’s the coming-out party when the company unveils why it’s worth owning the stock. Potential investors will come to Snapchat with more skepticism.  The last major social media debut, Twitter Inc., generated a lot of excitement on Wall Street, but the company’s later performance proved that a popular, influential product doesn’t necessarily indicate long-term revenue and user growth.

“Investors learned their lesson with Twitter,” said Rett Wallace, CEO at Triton Research Inc., which analyzes Silicon Valley companies preparing IPOs. “They now know what metrics to ask about.”

In Snap IPO, New Investors to Get Zero Votes While Founders Keep Control

Like many technology entrepreneurs, the founders of Snap Inc. want to retain management control of the virtual-messaging company, even as they sell shares to the public.

In one respect, the men are going further than tech firms typically do: Investors won’t get any voting power with shares purchased in Snap’s initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.

The recent scarcity of tech IPOs could work in Mr. Spiegel’s favor. In 2016, 26 technology companies went public on U.S. exchanges, raising $4.3 billion, the lowest number and dollar volume since 2009, according to Dealogic.

“If you’re the only supply in the market, you’re well positioned to dictate the terms,” said Triton Research LLC Chief Executive Rett Wallace, whose firm collects and analyzes data on private companies.

Nutanix stock spike signals juice back in tech IPOs

Tech darling Nutanix more than doubled on its first day of trading — the latest signal that Wall Street bankers are pricing initial public offerings aggressively to keep deals moving.

“Bankers are happy to get this stuff moving and get a pop — it makes it that much easier to do the next deal,” says Anthony Evans of Triton Research, a New York-based firm focused on tech IPOs.

“Meanwhile, the companies need money because they’re burning through cash,” Evans said.

Startups Cash Out Before IPOs as Venture Capitalists Turn Pickier

With venture capitalists growing pickier, the IPO market largely shut, and investors newly insistent that startups operate in the black, flush corporations are providing lucrative paydays for some startups that once had grander ambitions.

GM’s Alliance With Lyft Facing Rockier Road After Uber-Didi Deal

General Motors Co. and Lyft Inc. are going to have a lot harder time wringing benefits from their newly minted partnership now that their biggest ride-sharing rivals just formed an alliance of their own in the world’s largest economy. 

Earlier this year, GM poured $500 million into Lyft, half of a $1 billion round that valued the San Francisco-based startup at $5.5 billion. Just months before, Lyft had received a $100 million check from Didi Chuxing, China’s biggest ride-hailing business, solidifying an arrangement that would have helped both companies battle their shared global competitor, Uber Technologies Inc.

That all but dissolved this week when Didi and Uber joined forces for a $35 billion alliance in China. With it, Uber got $1 billion in cash that it can now use to focus on the U.S. market, where GM is counting on Lyft’s rapid growth to give it a real presence in the emerging business of ride sharing.

Uber’s China Deal Moves Ride-Hail Giant a Step Closer to IPO

Uber Technologies Inc. just took a big step toward being ready for an initial public offering: bailing out of its China business by selling the unit to ride-hailing competitor Didi Chuxing.

While Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick has said he plans to wait as long as possible before going public, throttling losses in China was one of the main things holding up a potential IPO, people familiar with the matter said last month. Uber had been spending at least $1 billion a year to fight market-leader Didi in the Beijing-based company’s home market, and has already lost $2 billion in China, separate people familiar with the details have said.

Rett Wallace, chief executive officer at Triton Research Inc., which analyzes Silicon Valley companies preparing an IPO, said the deal with Didi provides closure to a costly and uncertain battle in China.

“Resolution of the land war in Asia will be a big comfort to all investors, existing and prospective,” Wallace said. “Eliminating the losses is great for the profit and loss statement, but more importantly, there is now certainty about the end of what was shaping up to be an endless and escalating capital need.”

C.E.O.s Meet in Secret Over the Sorry State of Public Companies

…About a dozen chief executives of investment firms…arrived for a meeting that they were told they would absolutely have to keep secret.

The agenda…was to discuss the sorry state of publicly traded companies: too little trust and connection between shareholders and management, too many rules imposed by so-called governance experts and too many idiosyncratic accounting guidelines. As a result, much of the smart money in the United States is going — and staying — private, creating more companies that have less public accountability and transparency.

Twilio IPO shows there’s still some tech love on Wall Street

Shares of Twilio — a tech “unicorn” that was privately valued at about $1.23 billion — nearly doubled its market cap to $2.36 billion in its Thursday debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

The San Francisco-based startup — which powers anonymous text-messaging and phone calls for mobile apps like WhatsApp, Uber and Lyft — saw its shares surge nearly 92 percent, to $28.79, at the close of regular trading.

Despite the impressive one-day gain, Twilio’s relatively modest size limits its reliability as a bellwether for the tech IPO market ahead, warns Rett Wallace of New York-based Triton Research.

“Twilio is now one-tenth the size of Airbnb,” Wallace noted, referring to the home-sharing site recently valued at $24 billion on the private markets.

Still, Wallace said Twilio’s good news may augur well for Line, a Japan-based messaging app that’s aiming for a $5 billion valuation next month in dual listings on the New York and Tokyo stock exchanges.

Twilio’s Success Is the Exception, Not the Rule, in Today’s IPO Market

Twilio’s (TWLO) market debut Thursday far surpassed expectations but the IPO market still hasn’t come to life.

Twilio priced at $15 per share, ahead of the $12 to $14 range it provided, raising $150 million. The stock opened Thursday at $23.99, or 59.9% above the IPO price. Shares closed $28.79, up 92%.

While venture capital backers Bessemer Venture Partners, Union Square Ventures and Fidelity are probably pleased with the strong exit, more such debuts are unlikely in the near term.

“A lot of people are trying to force that story” that the tech IPO market has recovered, Kaylan Tildsley of Triton Research said in a phone interview. “Twilio is the third tech debut of the year, and the first of the traditional venture-backed Silicon Valley mold.”

“At the end of the day, Twilio is a good company,” she said. Triton assigned it a rating of 7.2 out of 10, ahead of the firm’s average rating of 6.5 “Solid growth, solid management, Goldman [ Sachs] brought it public” as one of the lead underwriters along with JPMorgan.

Twilio Jumps in Trading Debut After Pricing IPO Above Range

The second venture capital-backed technology company to go public this year, Twilio Inc., surged in its U.S. stock market debut.

The company’s initial public offering got off to a strong start. Twilio, the maker of mobile and web applications backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, sold 10 million Class A shares for $15 apiece, more than the $12 to $14 marketed range. The stock climbed as much as 73 percent to $26 on Thursday, after opening at $23.99.

While it may not trigger a slew of new listings, other technology companies considering whether to go public are watching Twilio closely.

Twilio has yet to make a profit, even with more than 28,000 active customers at the end of March including enterprise-software company Box Inc., department-store chain Nordstrom Inc. and rideshare company Uber Technologies Inc.

“This isn’t necessarily the greatest product in the world but the Who’s Who use it’’ said Anthony Evans, director of research at Triton Research, via telephone on Wednesday. “The business model for these guys is so good that they probably will earn money one day.”

Unicorns face tough road to Wall St

The End of Accounting

Investors are poorly served by arcane accounting methods, a new book argues. New ways are needed to measure companies’ performance.

The Disappearing IPO Market

Are Unicorns Killing the 2016 IPO Market?

Rising regulatory burdens combined with a surfeit of venture capital are making new stock offerings passé. That’s good for investors.

Acacia Communications jumps more than 30% in strong debut

Investors attracted to profits of year’s second tech IPO

Wall Street just got its second tech initial public offering of the year — and it looks like profits are sexy again.

Acacia Communications — a Massachusetts-based maker of high-speed optical data cabling — raised $103.5 million in cash as it priced 4.5 million shares at $23, at the high end of the range.

While Acacia’s business may sound boring, investors got turned on by its profits. Last year, Acacia generated $40.5 million in net come as its revenue surged 65 percent, to $239 million.

That kind of profitability hasn’t been typical for the most talked-about tech companies of late.

Silicon Valley darlings like Uber, Airbnb and Snapchat have spent heavily on growth, racking up heavy losses in the process.

“If the profit margins are what make this deal attractive to Wall Street, we won’t be seeing any Silicon Valley deals until the end of 2018,” said Rett Wallace of Triton Research, a New York-based research firm focused on tech IPOs.

It’s been one of the worst years on record for tech IPOs

For the first time in 2016, Wall Street has finally taken a tech company public — and the deal was a clunker.

SecureWorks, a digital-security firm controlled by Dell, closed at just $14 a share after its initial public offering on the Nasdaq Friday, well short of the $15.50 to $17.50 range the company sought.

It was the latest sign of a dark cloud lingering over the tech sector, as corporate spending on IT falters. Elsewhere Friday, shares of Google and Facebook tanked 5 and 7 percent, respectively, on disappointing earnings.

This year has been among the slowest on record for tech IPOs. By this time in 2015, six tech firms had gone public, according to Thomson Reuters. The edgy market has delayed entries by two other tech firms, Nutanix and Acacia Communications, which filed for IPOs in December and January, respectively.

“The big question is, who’s the first real tech company that wants to raise their hand and go first?” said Rett Wallace of Triton Research, a New York firm that analyses tech IPOs. “Whoever it is, it’s not going to be easy.”

Dell’s SecureWorks Has Lackluster Trading Debut

SecureWorks is the first initial public stock offering of the technology industry this year. That may be the extent of the victory lap for the tech I.P.O. market, at least for now.

In its first day of trading on Friday, shares of SecureWorks, a digital security company, have been hovering near the $14 price it set the night before. The stock opened on the Nasdaq market at $13.89.

SecureWorks raised $112 million, selling eight million shares. It had been marketing nine million shares within the range of $15.50 to $17.50, indicating that demand was weaker than expected.

The I.P.O. price yields a valuation of $1.1 billion, which is almost double the roughly $600 million Dell paid for the company in 2011, according to Triton Research, which provides information on private companies.

SecureWorks Stock Flat in Trading Debut After Reduced IPO

SecureWorks Corp., the cybersecurity company owned by Dell Inc., closed unchanged in its its trading debut after selling fewer shares than originally marketed in its initial public offering at a price below the marketed range.

The share sale marks the first U.S. technology IPO of the year. Across industries, only 12 companies had gone public in 2016 before the SecureWorks offering, excluding special purpose acquisition companies, closed-end funds and real estate investment trusts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the slowest pace since the financial crisis.

The SecureWorks IPO won’t necessarily spark a crop of listings from Silicon Valley’s so-called unicorns — the tech startups valued at more than $1 billion that typically raise million of dollars from venture capitalists. That’s because SecureWorks is a more mature, slow-growth company that doesn’t fit the profile of the attention-grabbing startups, according to Kaylan Tildsley, a partner at Triton Research.

SecureWorks IPO Terms Set: 9m Shares at $15.50 – $17.50 / Share

SecureWorks filed an amended registration with the SEC for its IPO this morning.  The company plans to sell 9mn shares and sees an offering price of $15.50 – $17.50 per share.  SecureWorks will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “SCWX.”

Triton Research published a comprehensive Dossier on Atlassian Corporation on January 7, 2016.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, management biographies, a historical valuation assessment, and more.

Triton Company Score (avg. 6.58): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Company Description: Sells managed security services that help enterprises and other organizations outsource IT security and lower their need to acquire personnel, software, and hardware and is sold on a subscription-basis.  The Company also sells one-time consulting services and security incident response services on an ad hoc basis.

Competitive Set: IBM, AT&T, Verizon, Optiv, Paladion Networks, The Herjavec Grou

Honest Co. Exploring Sale

Honest Co., the baby-products online retailer co-founded by actress Jessica Alba, is reportedly exploring a sale.  The company previously hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to work on an IPO.  Investors in the company include Fidelity, Wellington Management, Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst Partners, and Institutional Venture Partners.
 
Honest Co. is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Spotify Raising $1bn Round

Spotify, the music streaming service, is reportedly raising $1bn in a debt financing round from TPG, Dragoneer and Goldman Sachs.  Spotify last raised $526m at a $8.53bn valuation in June of 2015. Investors in the company include Accel, Discovery Capital, Founders Fund, GSV Capital and TCV.

Spotify is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 101 companies organized by investment theme.

Dropbox Shares Being Sold at a 34% Discount

Dropbox, the cloud storage company, has reportedly authorized a sale of its shares at a 34% discount to its most recent fundraising round.  Shareholders are set to sell the shares on the secondary market at $12.60 each, down from the $19.10 price tag just two years ago.  Dropbox last raised $250m at a $10bn valuation in January of 2014.  Investors in the company include Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Goldman Sachs, Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners, RIT Capital Partners and Valiant Capital Partners.

Dropbox is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 101 companies organized by investment theme.

Acacia Communications Dossier Published

Triton Research published a comprehensive Dossier on Acacia Communications on March 16, 2016.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, fundamental model, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, management biographies, a historical valuation assessment, and more.

Acacia Communications filed an S-1 for a $125m IPO on December 23, 2015.  The company named Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank as joint bookrunners.  Acacia Communications will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “ACIA.”

Company Description: Acacia Communications designs and sells high-speed, coherent transceivers and related components to network equipment manufacturers on a per module basis.  The transceivers and components are used in fiber optic routers and switches by telecommunications and cloud service providers.

Triton Company Score (avg. 6.58): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Competitive Set: Finisar, Oclaro, Lumentum, ClariPhy, Coriant, InnoLight

WeWork Raising $780m Round

WeWork, the New York-based provider of shared office space, is reportedly raising $780m in a debt financing round valuing the company at $17bn.  WeWork previously raised $969m in funding at a $10bn valuation.  Investors in the company include Benchmark Capital, Harvard Management, Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, T. Rowe Price, J.P. Morgan and Wellington Management.

WeWork is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 101 companies organized by investment theme.

Fewer, Faster, Smarter

The new innovators and disruptors promise a revolution in how we live. We can’t strangle them with rotary phone-era regulations.

Nutanix Holding Off IPO Pending Market Conditions

Nutanix, the network virtualization hardware company, is reportedly putting its IPO on hold until markets stabilize.

Triton Research published a comprehensive Dossier on Nutanix on January 11, 2016.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, fundamental model, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, management biographies, a historical valuation assessment, and more.

Nutanix filed an S-1 for a $200m IPO on December 22, 2015.  The company named Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Credit Suisse as joint bookrunners.  Nutanix will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “NTNX.”

Company Description: Develops and sells turnkey data center appliances and software that virtualizes both computational and storage capabilities removing the need for a centralized SAN or NAS system (cloud computing in a box). The product is sold along with related maintenance services to enterprises largely through third-party channels.

Tanium Names New CEO

Tanium, a cybersecurity software company, has appointed co-founder Orion Hindawi as its new CEO.  Mr. Hindawi was promoted from his position as CTO and takes over for his father, David Hindawi, who co-founded the company in 2007.  Tanium raised $120m last September at a $3.5bn valuation, bringing its total funding to $302m.  Investors in the company include Andreesen Horowitz, Franklin Templeton Investments, T. Rowe Price, IVP and TPG.
 
Tanium is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Twilio Expected to IPO Soon

Twilio, the cloud communications company that allows developers to add text, voice, picture and video to apps and other services is reportedly planning to go public soon.  The company filed confidentially last year and is working with Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan.  Twilio raised $130m last July at a $1bn valuation, bringing its total funding to $234m.  Investors in the company include Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Redpoint Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Founders Fund.
 
Twilio is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Are these celebs the next Wall Street darlings?

The next blockbusters for Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Hudson might not be in the movie theater — but in the stock market.

Alba, co-founder of natural-baby products empire Honest Co., is hoping to take her company public at a $1.7 billion valuation, according to a report. A successful IPO could smooth the way for other celebrity-backed brands — even in an ugly market.

But some market observers remain skeptical about an Honest Co. IPO, given the slumping markets. Last month didn’t see any tech IPOs — the first January that has happened since 2009, during the financial crisis, according to Renaissance Capital.

“Maybe having a Hollywood star attached to your company overcomes all this stuff that no one else can overcome,” said Rett Wallace, chief executive of Triton Research, a New York firm focused on tech IPOs. “But what’s their competitive advantage and defensible position in the baby powder business?”

Honest Co. Exploring IPO

Honest Co., the baby-products online retailer co-founded by actress Jessica Alba, is reportedly working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on an initial public offering.  The company raised $100m last August at a $1.7bn valuation. Investors in the company include Fidelity, Wellington Management, Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst Partners, and Institutional Venture Partners.
 
Honest Co. is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Jasper Technologies Acquired by Cisco for $1.4bn

Jasper Technologies, a software company that helps manage wireless connections for Internet-connected equipment, was acquired by Cisco for $1.4bn yesterday.  Jasper, which has been on Triton’s IPO Watchlist since November 2014, was reportedly planning an IPO but decided to sell instead.  Investors in the company include AllianceBernstein, Benchmark, Sequoia Capital, and Temasek Holdings.  The $1.4bn sale price is approximately the price of Jasper’s latest private valuation.
 
Jasper Technologies is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Silicon Valley’s $585 Billion Problem

VCs have pumped up the value of the “unicorn” startups. Now tech IPOs are in trouble. Good luck getting out.

Expect Some Unicorns to Lose Their Horns, and It Won’t Be Pretty

The unicorn wars are coming, as the downturn in the market will force these onetime highfliers to seek money at valuations below their earlier billion-dollar-plus levels, known as “down rounds.”

Nutanix Dossier Published

Triton Research published a comprehensive Dossier on Nutanix on January 11, 2016.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, fundamental model, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, management biographies, a historical valuation assessment, and more.

Nutanix filed an S-1 for a $200m IPO on December 22, 2015.  The company named Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Credit Suisse as joint bookrunners.  Nutanix will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “NTNX.”

Company Description: Develops and sells turnkey data center appliances and software that virtualizes both computational and storage capabilities removing the need for a centralized SAN or NAS system (cloud computing in a box). The product is sold along with related maintenance services to enterprises largely through third-party channels.

Triton Company Score (avg. 6.58): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Competitive Set: VMware, HP Enterprise, SimpliVity, Pivot3, Atlantis Computing

SecureWorks Dossier Published

Triton Research published a comprehensive Dossier on SecureWorks on January 7, 2016.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, management biographies, a historical valuation assessment, and more.

SecureWorks filed an S-1 for a $100m IPO on December 17, 2015.  The company named Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan as joint bookrunners.  SecureWorks will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “SCWX.”

Company Description: Sells managed security services to enterprises and other organizations on a subscription-basis that help customers outsource IT security and lower their need to acquire personnel, software, and hardware. The Company also sells one-time consulting services and security incident response services on an ad hoc basis..

Triton Company Score (avg. 6.58): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Competitive Set: IBM, AT&T, Verizon, Optiv, Paladion Networks, The Herjavec Group

Tech Startups Face Fresh Pressure on Valuations

A surge in private fundraising in 2015 helped technology startups steer clear of a painful initial-public-offering market. In 2016, they may not be able to avoid it.

A number of tech and Internet companies failed to reach their private valuations in their 2015 IPOs, while others later fell below their high-water marks in open trading, sending a chill through the growing crowd of private startups valued at $1 billion.

Big investors, concerned about the ability of IPOs to continue to generate hefty returns, in recent months have pulled out of funding rounds and marked down the value of their stakes in private startups.

Tougher private fundraising conditions could make it more difficult for startups to avoid the IPO market in 2016 if they need to raise money. And those deals, investors and bankers say, could face a chilly reception.

Lyft Received $500m Investment from GM

Lyft, a U.S.-based ridesharing app, announced that it has received a $500m investment from GM.  The investment is part of a wider-ranging strategic partnership that will include a rental program for drivers of the car-sharing service and the creation of an on-demand autonomous car network.  The partnership also marks Lyft’s boldest declaration yet that it intends to operate with self-driving cars in the future.
 
GM’s investment is part of a larger funding round of $1bn for Lyft, which reportedly values Lyft at $5.5bn.  The round already includes $100m from Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Company, Janus Capital Management, Rakuten, Didi Kuaidi and Alibaba.  Lyft has now raised $2bn since it was founded in 2013.

Lyft is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 102 companies organized by investment theme.

SecureWorks Filed for a $100m IPO

SecureWorks Corp, a subsidiary of Dell Inc. that provides information security services, filed an S-1 with the SEC for a $100m IPO today.  The company named Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan as joint bookrunners.  SecureWorks will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “SCWX.”

Company Description: Provides information security services focused on cyber attacks.

Competitive Set: FireEye, Palo Alto Networks, Symantec, Cisco, IBM, Hewlett Packard

Tech Startups Have a Big Problem

A year ago, investors clamored to get a piece of hot tech startups like Zenefits and Snapchat. This magazine even argued that it was unfair that regular investors couldn’t access the world’s fastest-growing private companies.

Today those investors are probably happy they never had the chance.

Tech Startup Crowdfunding Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be

Allowing everyday Americans to invest in today’s high-growth startups—picture grandma and grandpa putting a portion of their retirement savings into the next pre-IPO Facebook —has long been the dream of advocates of so-called equity crowdfunding. This dream was supposed to be enabled by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, which became law in April 2012. Three years later, after substantially more wrangling than anyone anticipated, Title III of that act is finally codified as rules written by the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to those rules, as of May 16, the floodgates of equity crowdfunding will be officially open.

Atlassian IPO Offering Now 22m Shares at $19 – $20/Share

Atlassian Corporation filed an F-1/A with the SEC today revising their IPO offering.  The company will now sell 22m shares at an offering price of $19.00 – $20.00 per share.  Atlassian previously planned to sell 20m shares at $16.50 – $18.50 per share.  Atlassian will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “TEAM.”

Triton Research published a comprehensive Dossier on Atlassian Corporation on November 20, 2015 and updated that Dossier on November 30. 2015.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, fundamental model, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, management biographies, a historical valuation assessment, and more

Tech start-ups waiting ‘way too long’ for IPO

Atlassian IPO Dossier Updated: Triton Score Unchanged

Triton Research revised our Atlassian Company Score to reflect the company’s amended registration with the SEC on November 27, 2015.  The company plans to sell 20m shares and sees an offering price of $16.50 – $18.50 per share.  Atlassian will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “TEAM.”

Triton Research originally published a comprehensive Dossier on Atlassian Corporation on November 20, 2015.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, fundamental model, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, management biographies, a historical valuation assessment, and more.

Atlassian IPO Terms Set: 20m Shares at $16.50 – $18.50 Per Share

Atlassian Corporation filed an amended registration with the SEC for its IPO on November 27, 2015.  The company plans to sell 20m shares and sees an offering price of $16.50 – $18.50 per share.  Atlassian will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “TEAM.”

Triton Research published a comprehensive Dossier on Atlassian Corporation on November 20, 2015.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, fundamental model, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, management biographies, a historical valuation assessment, and more.

Atlassian Dossier Published

Triton Research published a comprehensive Dossier on Atlassian Corporation on November 20, 2015.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, fundamental model, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, management biographies, a historical valuation assessment, and more.

Atlassian Corporation filed an S-1 for a $250m IPO on November 9, 2015.  The company named Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as lead bookrunners.  Atlassian will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “TEAM.”

Company Description: Develops and sells software development and collaboration tools on a subscription and perpetual license basis along with related support and training services. The Company also runs a marketplace for 3rd-party vendors to sell extensions for the Company’s software.

Square’s stock soars in debut on Wall Street

Shares in mobile payment company Square rocketed above its initial public offering price by 45 percent Thursday, capping one of the most closely watched debuts of a tech stock this year.

 

Is Square a Tech Company or a Payments Company?

Triton Research Partner Kaylan Tildsley discusses Square’s IPO and valuation. She speaks on “Bloomberg Markets.”

Square’s stock surges in Wall Street debut

Square’s first day of public trading got off to a fast start on Thursday morning in what has been a bumpy ride for one of Silicon Valley’s most high-profile startups.

Square shakes off weak IPO with first-day trading pop

Wall Street doesn’t hate unicorns, after all.

Square, the mobile-payments startup founded by Jack Dorsey, saw its shares soar 45 percent on their first day of trading — despite worries that so-called tech unicorns, private companies valued at more than $1 billion, are overpriced.

On the other hand, Thursday’s promising first day of trading was enabled in no small way by the company’s investment bankers 24 hours earlier taking down the pricing of the stock to a rock-bottom $9 — well below an earlier range of $11 to $13.

With the shares closing at $13.07 on the New York Stock Exchange, Square had a market capitalization of more than $4.2 billion.

That is well below the $6 billion valuation that Square had fetched in private investing rounds during the past year — confirmation that venture capitalists have been a little frothy with their estimates of late.

“A lot of public fund managers in New York are looking to restore some pricing discipline,” says Rett Wallace, chief executive of Triton Research, a firm focused on tech initial public offerings.

Square sets lower IPO price ahead of its Wall Street debut

Mobile payment company Square on Wednesday night priced its shares below the expected range, reflecting caution from investors in a volatile stock market as it prepares to go public Thursday.

Square IPO Pricing Will Test Investors’ Appetite for Unicorns

What investors are willing to pay for mobile-payments service Square Inc. in its initial public offering will hinge on how much of a technology premium the company warrants for being a member of the startup “unicorn” club.

Two unicorns that went to the markets before Square haven’t fared well in the past months. LendingClub, which went public almost a year ago, surged 56 percent in its debut on Dec. 11. Since then, the stock has plummeted 45 percent. Etsy is trading 45 percent below its April IPO price.

Some of the luster of simply being a tech company has worn off because investors increasingly want to see growing profitability — not just increasing sales, said Rett Wallace, chief executive officer at Triton Research, which analyzes Silicon Valley companies preparing an IPO.

“You could go do a search and replace the word tech with magic,” Wallace said. “How that magic turns into value is kind of unclear.”

Regulators Look Into Mutual Funds’ Procedures for Valuing Startups

Federal securities regulators are looking more closely at whether U.S. mutual funds have proper procedures in place to accurately price shares of private technology companies amid signs the tech boom is wavering, according to people familiar with the matter.

Yirendai Filed for a $100m IPO

Yirendai Ltd., a Chinese marketplace for peer-to-peer personal loans spun out of CreditEase, filed an F-1 with the SEC for a $100m IPO.  The company named Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and China Renaissance as joint bookrunners.  Yirendai will list on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “YRD.”

Company Description: Online peer-to-peer lending marketplace that matches investors with individual borrowers.

Competitive Set: Lending Club, OnDeck, Prosper, SoFi, Zopa.

Match Group IPO Dossier Updated: Triton Score Revised LOWER

Triton Research revised our Match Group Company Score LOWER to reflect Match’s amended registration with the SEC yesterday.  Match Group plans to sell 33.3m shares and sees an offering price of $12 – $14 per share.  Match will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “MTCH.”

Triton Research originally published a comprehensive Dossier on Match Group on October 30, 2015.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, fundamental model, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

Match Group IPO Terms Set: 33.3m Shares at $12 – $14 Per Share

Match Group filed an amended registration with the SEC for its IPO this morning.  The company plans to sell 33.3m shares and sees an offering price of $12 – $14 per share.  Match will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “MTCH.”

Triton Research published a comprehensive Dossier on Match Group on October 30, 2015, which is being updated to reflect today’s offering details.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, fundamental model, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

Atlassian Filed for a $250m IPO

Atlassian Corporation filed an S-1 for a $250m IPO this morning.  The company named Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as lead bookrunners.  Atlassian will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “TEAM.”

Company Description: Atlassian sells business collaboration software.

Competitive Set: Microsoft, IBM, Rally Software (CA Technologies), GitHub, Zendesk

Square IPO Dossier Updated

Triton Research updated our Dossier to reflect Square’s amended registration with the SEC on November 6, 2015.  Square plans to sell 27m shares and sees an offering price of $11 – $13 per share.  Square will list on the NYSE under the symbol “SQ.”

Triton initially published a comprehensive Square Dossier on October 27th, 2015.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

Square’s IPO Terms Put Valuation Below Latest Funding Round

Mobile payments startup Square Inc. is seeking a valuation of about $3.9 billion, according to a new securities filing, far less than the $6 billion price tag put on the firm a year ago and a sign that recent sky-high private values are facing increasing market skepticism.

The San Francisco-based company on Friday said it expects to sell 27 million shares at between $11 and $13 each in an initial public offering, much less than what some investors paid for their shares a year ago.

Square’s pricing could serve as a reality check for the more than 120 tech companies with valuations of at least $1 billion, a club that has ballooned this year. Six-year-old Square’s IPO comes as big-name investors pushed valuations into the stratosphere for companies including Airbnb Inc., Dropbox Inc., and Uber Technologies Inc., which could test the public market as soon as next year.

“It’s a chickens-coming-home-to-roost moment,” said Rett Wallace, CEO of Triton Research LLC, which analyzes pre-IPO companies. “It might be harder for future IPOs because of how difficult it is to predict what they’ll be worth.”

Square, Facing a Chilly Market, Persists in Pursuing I.P.O.

The biggest question on Wall Street on Friday was why Square, the upstart mobile payments company, was so determined to go public now.

Square knows that it faces an uphill battle. To account for its challenges, the company on Friday set its price per share in the $11 to $13 range, valuing the company at roughly $3.9 billion. That is well below its most recent private market estimate of $6 billion.

“A big name like Square going public at a down round paves the way to wonder what Silicon Valley unicorns will do so now,” said Kaylan Tildsley, a partner at Triton Research, which researches private companies.

Still, potential investors are digging into the company’s prospectus and setting up meetings with management during the firm’s road show to market its stock, according to people briefed on the company’s plans. And from Square’s perspective, it may be better to take its chances in the public arena now than to wait until next year, when it could be competing for attention with other unicorns — start-ups valued at $1 billion or more — going through the same issues.

“Their thought is, Let’s get out there sooner rather than later,” Ms. Tildsley said.

Square IPO Terms Set: 27m Shares at $11-$13 Per Share

Square Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for its IPO today.  The company plans to sell 27m shares and sees an offering price of $11 – $13 per share.  Square will list on the NYSE under the symbol “SQ.”

Triton published a comprehensive Square Dossier on October 27th, 2015, which is being updated to reflect today’s offering details.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

Square IPO Terms Set: 27m Shares at $11-$13 Per Share

Square Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for its IPO today.  The company plans to sell 27m shares and sees an offering price of $11 – $13 per share.  Square will list on the NYSE under the symbol “SQ.”

Triton published a comprehensive Square Dossier on October 27th, 2015, which is being updated to reflect today’s offering details.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

Company Description: Square provides transaction services, software, and hardware that allow merchants to accept card payments. The Company also provides software services that manage back-office operations and also provides cash advances to merchants.

Competitive Set: PayPal, VeriFone, Shopify, Stripe, Adyen, Lightspeed, Clover (First Data)

Square’s Challenges on Road to IPO

Triton Research CEO and founder Rett Wallace, Liquidnet chief executive officer and co-founder Seth Merrin discuss Square’s road to initial public offering on “Bloomberg ‹GO›.”

Mutual Funds Flail at Valuing Hot Startups Like Uber

Millions of Americans own a piece of the hottest private technology companies through their mutual funds. But no one knows what those investments are actually worth.

Match Group Inc. Filed for a $100m IPO

Match Group Inc. filed an S-1 for a $100m IPO this evening.  The company named J.P. Morgan, Allen & Company,  and BofA Merrill Lynch as bookrunners.  Match Group Inc. will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “MTCH.”

Company Description: Match Group operates a portfolio dating products including Match, OkCupid, Tinder, Meetic, Twoo, OurTime and FriendScout24.

Competitive Set: Zoosk, Parship, ElitePartner, eHarmony.com, Spark Networks (Jdate, ChristianMingle), , Hinge, Bumble, Blendr, MeetMe.com

Discerning investors rattle IPO deals

Tech ‘unicorns’ opt for dual share listings

For IPOs, Earning a Profit Matters Again

Investors in initial public offerings are taking a fresh look at companies coming to market and asking a new question: Can they make it through a tough stretch?

Concerns about the economy and jitters in credit markets are prompting skepticism about issuers that aren’t very profitable or are carrying heavy debt loads.

“It’s very reasonable for investors in this environment to ask what magic will make a loss-making company more profitable when it’s larger,” said Rett Wallace, chief executive of Triton Research LLC, which analyzes pre-IPO companies.

Square Filed for a $275m IPO

Square Inc. filed an S-1 for a $275m IPO this afternoon.  The company named Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan as lead bookrunners.  Square will list on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “SQ.”

Company Description: Square sells point-of-sale and retail management software and hardware. Square also offers payment processing and marketing services, and operates the Square Capital small-business loan marketplace.

Competitive Set: Intuit, Apple, Clover (First Data), Adyen, Shopify, Revel Systems.

Tech Startup Pure Storage to Test Appetite for IPOs

The outlook for the U.S. initial public offering market, and technology startups in particular, may hinge on the first tech deal to come this quarter, investors say.

The debut of flash-storage company Pure Storage Inc., if successful, would send a signal that a difficult summer for tech IPOs was an outlier, and that investors will still put money to work when highly anticipated companies debut.

However, if the market debut for the startup—valued at more than $3 billion privately—goes poorly, investors say it will spark fears that there is a long winter ahead, especially for the more than 120 private tech firms valued at $1 billion or more.

“All eyes are on this deal to see what the tech IPO landscape will be for the end of the year,” said Kaylan Tildsley, a partner at Triton Research LLC, which provides data and research on private tech companies. The implications are particularly important because “the backlog of private technology companies with the potential to IPO is massive,” she said.

First Data IPO Dossier Updated: Triton Score Revised HIGHER

Triton Research revised our First Data Company Score higher to reflect First Data’s amended registration with the SEC yesterday.  First Data plans to sell 160m shares and sees an offering price of $18 – $20 per share.  First Data will list on the NYSE under the symbol “FDC.”

Triton published a comprehensive First Data Dossier on August 11, 2015.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

SoFi Raised $1bn

Social Finance, the peer-to-peer (P2P) student loan startup, announced that it had raised a $1bn Series E round yesterday.  This is believed to be the largest-ever equity funding in the financial technology space.  SoftBank led the round and was joined by Third Point Ventures, Wellington Management, Institutional Venture Partners, RenRen, and Baseline Ventures.  This raise is expected to delay SoFi’s IPO plans, as the company was previously speculated to go public in 2015.

SoFi is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

First Data IPO Terms Set: 160m Shares at $18 – $20 Per Share

First Data Corp. filed an amended registration with the SEC for its IPO today.  The company plans to sell 160m shares and sees an offering price of $18 – $20 per share.  First Data will list on the NYSE under the symbol “FDC.”

Triton published a comprehensive First Data Dossier on August 11, 2015.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

Avant Raising $325m

Avant, an online marketplace for consumer loans, raised $325m in an equity round led by General Atlantic.  Other investors include Balyasny Asset Management and J.P. Morgan, as well as existing shareholders Tiger Global Management, August Capital, RRE Ventures and DFJ Growth.  The round, which is expected to formally close in a few weeks, reportedly valued Avant at approximately $2bn.

Avant is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

Didi Kuaidi Invested in Ola

Didi Kuaidi, China’s largest taxi-hailing app, announced today that it invested in Ola, India’s largest taxi-hailing app.  Earlier this month Ola was reported to be raising over $500m at a $5bn valuation.  Didi did not disclose the amount it is investing, but reports suggest it invested approximately $30m.  The investment appears to confirm recent speculation that Didi is attempting to assemble a global alliance of the major car services that aren’t Uber.  Did has previously invested in Lyft (U.S.) and GrabTaxi (Southeast Asia).

Didi Kuaidi and Ola are both members of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

Square Filing for IPO in Two Weeks

Square, the merchant services aggregator and mobile payment company, is reportedly planning to file an S-1 for its initial public offering within the next two weeks. A Fortune article out yesterday afternoon states that the company filed a confidential filing earlier this summer. This timing would allow Square to go public before the end of 2015. Goldman Sachs has been selected as the lead underwriter and Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are also involved in the deal.

Square was last valued at $6bn in October 2014. Investors in the company include Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, Citi Ventures, Starbucks, Sequoia Capital and Richard Branson.

Square is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired. The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

Triton Score Revised LOWER

Triton Research revised our Pure Storage Company Score lower to reflect Pure Storage’s amended registration with the SEC yesterday.  Pure Storage plans to sell 25m shares and sees an offering price of $16 – $18 per share.  Pure Storage will list on the NYSE under the symbol “PSTG.”

Triton Research published a comprehensive Dossier on Pure Storage on September 1, 2015.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, fundamental model, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

Pure Storage IPO Range Indicates Little Change in Year-Old Value

Pure Storage Inc., the third-biggest seller of all-flash storage systems, is seeking a valuation in its initial public offering that almost matches what private investors said the company was worth 17 months ago.

After a financing round led by T. Rowe Price Group, Pure Storage said in April 2014 that it fetched a valuation of $3 billion. Now, after nearly a year and a half of development and conducting business, that figure has increased only slightly at best.

Pure Storage’s IPO will serve as test over whether “the private market is intrinsically different from the public market, from a valuation perspective,” said Rett Wallace, chief executive officer at Triton Research, which analyzes Silicon Valley companies preparing an IPO.

“In the Valley, an emerging clever truism is that an IPO is the new down round,” he said. “With so few tech deals in the market, Pure Storage is set up to be the singular data point to support or debunk this idea.”

Pure Storage Sets IPO Terms: 25m Shares at $16 – $18 Per Share

Pure Storage filed an amended registration with the SEC for its IPO today.  The company plans to sell 25m shares and sees an offering price of $16 – $18 per share.  Pure Storage will list on the NYSE under the symbol “PSTG.”

Triton Research published a comprehensive Dossier on Pure Storage on September 1, 2015.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, fundamental model, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

Bloomberg Surveillance

Are Central Banks Killing the IPO Market?

Rett Wallace, chief executive officer at Triton Research, discusses the state of the IPO market and public vs. private funding of companies. He speaks on “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

Alibaba Picks Up Amazon’s Mantle of Disappointment

First Data Targeting $3bn IPO

A Wall Street Journal report claims that First Data Corp. is planning to raise $3bn in its IPO.  The offering is scheduled to kick off this week and will be the biggest U.S. listing so far this year.  The IPO is expected to give First Data a stock market value of $20 – 25bn.  Article Link.

Triton published a comprehensive First Data Dossier on August 11, 2015.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

First Data Appoints New CFO

First Data today announced that Himanshu Patel has been appointed Chief Financial Officer for the company.  Patel has served as First Data’s Executive Vice President of Strategy, Planning & Business Development since June 2013.  The company’s IPO is expected within the week.

Triton published a comprehensive Dossier on August 11, 2015.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

Ola Raising $500m at a $5bn Valuation

Ola, a mobile taxi booking marketplace in India, is reportedly raising over $500m at a $5bn valuation.  The raise is expected to be finalized within the next two weeks, but $225m has already been committed from investors including Falcon Edge Capital, Tiger Global Management, and Softbank Corp.  The company was last valued at $2.5bn in April when Ola raised $400m.

Ola is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

First Data Will List on NYSE as “FDC”

First Data Corporation filed an S-1/A this afternoon disclosing the company’s decision to list on the NYSE under the symbol “FDC.”  Earlier this week it was reported that First Data’s IPO could take place by the end of this month.  The deal is expected to be at least $2.5bn, which would be the biggest in the U.S. this year.

Triton published a comprehensive Dossier on August 11, 2015.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

Square IPO Coming in Q4

Square, the merchant services aggregator and mobile payment company, is reportedly planning to IPO in the fourth quarter of this year.  Speculation has swirled in recent months that the company filed confidentially for an IPO, but Jack Dorsey’s involvement with Twitter has complicated matters.  Bloomberg is now reporting that Square will press ahead with its IPO plans and Dorsey will remain the company’s CEO.

Square was last valued at $6bn in October 2014.  Investors in the company include Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, Citi Ventures, Starbucks, Sequoia Capital and Richard Branson.

Square is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 109 companies organized by investment theme.

First Data’s $2.5bn IPO Accelerated

Bloomberg is reporting that First Data Corporation is preparing to seek at least $2.5bn in their IPO.  The deal – which would be the biggest in the U.S. this year – could take place by the end of this month.  Earlier reports had hinted at an October IPO.  First Data filed its S-1 on July 20, 2015 and selected its bookrunners on August 26. 2015.

Triton published a comprehensive Dossier on August 11, 2015.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

PointClickCare Filed for a $100m IPO

PointClickCare, a provider of cloud-based management software in the senior care industry, filed an S-1 for a $100m IPO on September 3, 2015.  The company named J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and RBC Capital Markets as bookrunners.  PointClickCare will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “PCLK.”

Company Description: PointClickCare sells cloud-based management software for senior care providers.

Competitive Set: McKesson, Epic Systems, Cerner, CareMerge, HealthMedx

Good Technology Bought by BlackBerry for $425m

Good Technology, a mobile security developer and provider, was acquired by BlackBerry yesterday for $425m in cash.  The companies expect to close the deal by the end of November.  Good Technology had previously filed for an IPO in May 2014, but recent reports have suggested the company was having trouble getting the deal to market.

Good Technology was scored 4.80 by Triton Research, which is the lowest Company Score in history.

Pure Storage Dossier Published

Triton Research has published a comprehensive Dossier on Pure Storage.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, fundamental model, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

Pure Storage filed an S-1 with the SEC on August 12, 2015 and is expected to launch its roadshow next month.  The company has not chosen an exchange but will list as “PSTG.”

First Data Selects Bookrunners

First Data selected 15 underwriters to lead its public offering yesterday.  The company, which filed its S-1 on July 20, still has not stated how much it intends to raise or chosen a ticker or exchange. First Data is expected to raise several billion dollars, and will likely not launch its road show until October.

Fanatics Raised $300m From Silver Lake

Fanatics, an online seller of branded sports team gear, sold a minority ownership stake to Silver Lake for $300m.  The company has been majority-owned by Kynetic LLC, an eBay spinoff.  The investment is all for primary shares, meaning that existing Fanatics investors will hold onto their stock.  It is not clear how large Silver Lake’s minority position would be, or if Kynetic would remain majority shareholder.  The company has previously raised $450m in minority equity funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Insight Venture Partners, and Alibaba Group.

Kynetic is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

How the ‘millisecond market’ can deter tech IPOs

ZocDoc Valued at $1.8bn

ZocDoc, the online booking platform for doctors, announced a $130m round of funding today.  The raise valued the company at $1.8bn, making ZocDoc the third most valuable startup in New York.  ZocDoc, which was founded in 2007, was last valued at $700m when it raised funding in 2011.  Baillie Gifford and Atomico (the venture firm started by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom) led the round.  Existing investors in the company include Founders Fund, Jeff Bezos, Goldman Sachs, DST Global, and Khosla Ventures.

ZocDoc is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

SoFi Valued at $4bn

Social Finance Inc. (SoFi), an online marketplace lender with a focus on student loan refinancing, has reportedly raised $1bn at a $4bn valuation.  The round took place over the past few weeks and was led by SoftBank.  SoFi, which was founded in 2011, had previously raised $766m from investors including Third Point Ventures, Discovery Capital, Peter Thiel, and Wellington Management.

SoFi is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

Liberty Interactive to Purchase zulily

zulily, the flash-sales site for mothers, agreed to sell itself to Liberty Interactive yesterday in a deal that values the company at $2.4bn, or $18.75 a share in cash and stock.  zulily, which traded as high as $73.50 last year, is now 15% below its $22.00 IPO price.

SoFi Hired A COO Ahead of Rumored IPO

SoFi, an online marketplace lender with a focus on student loan refinancing, hired digital media veteran Joanne Bradford as its chief operating officer today.  This comes after reports in March that the company was preparing for a $500m IPO later this year.  SoFi, which was founded in 2011, has raised $766m in total capital from investors including Third Point Ventures, Discovery Capital, Peter Thiel, and Wellington Management.

SoFi is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

Pure Storage Inc. Filed for a $300m IPO

Pure Storage, a flash storage company, filed an S-1 for a $300m IPO today.  The company named Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, and Allen & Company as bookrunners.  This filing confirms speculation in April that Pure Storage was preparing to go public.  The company was valued at $3bn in April 2014 and has raised over $470m from investors including Sutter Hill, Greylock, Redpoint, Index Ventures, T.Rowe Price, Fidelity and Wellington Management.  The company has not chosen an exchange but will list as “PSTG.”

Company Description: Pure Storage sells solid-state enterprise storage hardware

Competitive Set: EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, HGST (Western Digital), NetApp, HP

First Data Dossier Published

Triton Research has published a comprehensive Dossier on First Data Corporation.  The Dossier includes a Triton Company Score, business model analysis, product analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, management and director biographies, a historical valuation assessment, questions for management, and more.

First Data filed an S-1 with the SEC on July 20, 2015 and is expected to launch its roadshow next month.

HelloFresh Planning To IPO This Year

HelloFresh, a food delivery startup, is reportedly preparing for an IPO this year.  The offering may take place as early as October and could value the company at over $1.1bn.  Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have been tapped to organize the listing.  HelloFresh, which was founded in 2011, has raised over $193m in funding.  Rocket Internet is a majority investor in the company, and other backers include Insight Venture Partners, Phenomen Ventures and Vorwerk Direct Selling Ventures.

HelloFresh is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

Uber Financial Metrics Leaked

Confidential Uber financial documents were leaked to Gawker today.  The documents appear to show Uber’s profits and losses for 2012, 2013, and some of 2014.  According to the documents, Uber reported an annual net revenue of $16.1m in 2012, $104.4m in 2013, and $102.6m in the first half of 2014.  Total losses have grown from $56.5m in 2013 to $161.1m in the first half of 2014.

Uber has raised over $6bn from investors since since the company was founded in 2009.  The company was most recently valued at $51bn.

Gawker Link.

Uber is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

Uber Valued at $51bn, Snapdeal Valued at $5bn

Uber Technologies, the mobile car-booking company, is now valued at $51bn.  The company raised $1bn in a round led by Microsoft, who invested $100m.  Uber was previously valued at $40bn when it raised money in February 2015.  Uber has now raised $6.9bn since the company was founded in 2009.

Snapdeal, the Indian ecommerce startup, is reportedly raising $500m at a $5bn valuation.  The raise is being led by Alibaba, with Foxconn and previous investor Softbank also participating.  Snapdeal, which was founded in 2010, has raised $1.1bn in total capital from investors such as eBay, Softbank, Intel and Blackrock.

Uber and Snapdeal are members of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

SimpliVity Planning A 2016 IPO

SimpliVity, a software startup that helps companies manage their hardware, is reportedly planning to IPO in the first quarter of 2016.  CEO Doron Kempel said in an interview that the six-year-old company is leaning toward Morgan Stanley as an underwriter.  SimpliVity was last valued at over $1bn in March and has raised $276m in total capital.  Investors in the company include Accel Partners, Charles River Ventures, DFJ Growth, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Growth, Waypoint Capital and Meritech Capital Partners.

SimpliVity is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

GitHub Added to Triton’s IPO Watchlist

GitHub, a software code hosting and collaboration platform, has been added to the Triton IPO Watchlist.  The company announced on July 29, 2015 that it had raised a $250m funding round at a valuation of approximately $2bn.  Sequoia Capital led the round, with Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital and Institutional Venture Partners also participating.  GitHub, which was founded in 2008, has raised a total of $350m in outside funding.

GitHub is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme

First Data Corporation Reported Q2 Results

First Data Corporation reported Q2 results this afternoon.  The company saw a slight increase in revenue (1%) and adjusted EBITDA (3%) compared to the same quarter of 2014.  First Data filed an S-1 with the SEC on July 20, 2015 and is reportedly in the midst of interviewing bankers for its IPO.

Company Description: First Data provides payment processing services, as well as point-of-sale, analytics, and security software.

Competitive Set: Worldpay, Global Payments, Heartland Payment Systems, Vantiv, Square, Paypal, MICROS (Oracle)

Stripe Valued at $5bn

Stripe, a digital payments startup, received an investment from Visa that values the company at $5bn.  The investment is part of a larger round that includes Kleiner Perkins, American Express, and Sequoia Capital.  Stripe was last valued at $3.5bn in May.  Stripe and Visa also signed a commercial agreement in which the two companies will work closely on initiatives around payments security and new product innovation.

Stripe is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Vizio Inc. Filed for a $173m IPO

Vizio Inc. filed an S-1 with the SEC today for a proposed IPO of its common stock.  The company has not chosen an exchange but will list as “VZIO.”

Company Description: Consumer electronics company.

Competitive Set: Samsung, Sony, LG, Sharp, Toshiba, Panasonic, Funai

Square Said to File for IPO

Square, the merchant services aggregator and mobile payment company, has reportedly filed confidentially for an IPO.  This news comes after Forbes reported last month that Square is preparing for a public offering.  The company declined to comment on the news.  Square was last valued at $6bn in October 2014.  Investors in the company include Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, Citi Ventures, Starbucks, Rizvi Traverse Management and Richard Branson.

Square is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Palantir Worth $20bn, Airbnb Hiring a CFO

Palantir, the secretive data and analytics company, disclosed a new fundraising round to the SEC yesterday.  The company issued $500mn worth of stock and has sold $450m so far.  This confirms recent reports that Palantir was doing a raise at a $20bn valuation.  Palantir is now the 4^th most highly valued startup in the world behind Uber Technologies, Airbnb and Xiaomi.  Investors in Palantir include Founders Fund, 137 Ventures, Glynn Capital Management, Tiger Global Management and Reed Elsevier Ventures.

Airbnb, the online room rental service, is reportedly in talks to hire Blackstone’s CFO Laurence Tosi.  Airbnb hasn’t had a CFO since Andrew Swain left the company in September 2014.  Airbnb is reportedly in the process of raising $1bn at a $24bn valuation.  Investors in Airbnb include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, SV Angel, TPG, T. Rowe Price, and DST.

Palantir and Airbnb are members of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

First Data Corporation Filed for an IPO

First Data Corporation filed an S-1 with the SEC today for a proposed IPO of its common stock.  The company filed for a $100m offering, but this amount is likely a placeholder.

Company Description: First Data provides payment processing services, as well as point-of-sale, analytics, and security software.

Competitive Set: Worldpay, Global Payments, Heartland Payment Systems, Vantiv, Square, Paypal, MICROS (Oracle)

Apptio Hired Banks for an IPO

Apptio, a cloud-based software startup that helps companies analyze their spending on technology, is reportedly preparing for an IPO.  Apptio hired Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Bank of America to lead the offering.  The company – which last month named co-founder Kurt Shintaffer as chief financial officer – is expected to be valued at $1bn.  Apptio has raised $136m in total funding from Janus Capital, T. Rowe Price, The Hillman Comparies, Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and others.

Apptio is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

FanDuel raising $275m at a valuation of over $1bn

FanDuel, the market leader in the daily fantasy sports industry, has reportedly raised $275m in Series E financing, bringing the company’s total capital raised to $363m at a valuation of over $1bn.  The latest funding round was oversubscribed and led by KKR with Google Capital and Time Warner Investments.  Previous investors Shamrock Capital, NBC Sports Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Bullpen Capital, Pentech Ventures and Piton Capital re-invested in FanDuel during the Series E raise.

Can You Tell the Difference Between a Robot and a Stock Analyst?

Each day, Wall Street churns out millions of words encouraging investors to buy or sell stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

In the future, more of those words might not be written by humans.

As automation in financial services grows, computers and algorithms have taken on some of the traditional work of traders, clerks and financial advisers. Now, a host of startups that use artificial intelligence to write news stories and other reports have set their sights on writing work at banks and financial-service companies.

Rapid7 IPO Terms Set: 6.45m Shares at $13 – $15 Per Share

Rapid7 Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for its IPO this afternoon.  The company plans to sell 6.45m primary shares and sees an offering price of $13 – $15 per share.  Rapid7 will list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “RPD.”

Triton Research published a 79-page report on Rapid7, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalization, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please call (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.56): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Company Description: Develops and sells security software and services to enterprises and medium-sized businesses in a number of ways; 1) licensed software with associated, subscription-based content and maintenance, 2) cloud-based software services, and 3) managed services where it operates the software for its customers. The Company also sells professional services.

Competitive Set: Qualys, Tenable Network Security, McAfee (IBM), IBM, Veracode

MongoDB Hires New CFO

MongoDB, a NoSQL database software company, announced Michael Gordon as its Chief Financial Officer this morning.  Gordon replaces previous CFO Sydney Carey, who left MongoDB in February for venture-backed security company Zscaler.  Mr. Gordan joins MongoDB from Yodle, a venture-backed online marketing company for local businesses that filed for an IPO in July 2014 but has yet to go public. He was both the chief operating officer and chief financial officer and said he wasn’t looking to leave.

MongoDB raised $80m last December at a rumored $1.6bn valuation.  Investors in the company include Goldman Sachs, Altimeter Capital, NEA, Sequoia and T. Rowe Price Associates.

MongoDB is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme

InnoLight Technology Dossier Published by Triton Research

Triton Research has published a 64-page Dossier on InnoLight Technology Corporation.  Our analysis contains a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.

InnoLight filed an S-1 with the SEC on June 18, 2015 for an IPO of its common stock.  The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker INLT.

Company Description: Designs, manufactures, and sells high-performance optical transceivers (for use in data communications over fiber optic cable) to organizations with data centers.

Competitive Set: Finisar, Cisco, Brocade, Dell, Transition Networks

Uber Term Sheet Leaked – Reveals $470m in Operating Losses

An Uber term sheet was leaked to Bloomberg News yesterday.  The document, which is being used to sell $1bn – $1.2bn in convertible bonds, reveals that the company generated $470m in operating losses on $415m in revenue.  The term sheet also states 300% year-over-year growth.  An Uber spokeswoman claimed that the disclosed numbers are “substantially old [and] do not reflect business activities today.”

Last week it was reported that the deal is being led by Hillhouse Capital Management.  The leaked document shows that investors will be able to convert the notes at a compounded 11.5% discount if the company sells shares on the public market. The bonds mature in 2022, with an 8% annual return if held through maturity. Uber reportedly aims to complete the deal by June 30, 2015.

Uber is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

HelloFresh Added to Triton Research IPO Watchlist

HelloFresh, a food delivery startup, has been added to the Triton Research IPO Watchlist.  Press reports suggest that the company is considering an initial public offering this year and is in dialogue with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs about advising.  HelloFresh has raised $193.5m in total capital since its inception in 2011.  The company is backed by Rocket Internet, Insight Venture Partners, Phenomen Ventures and Vorwerk Direct Selling Ventures.

HelloFresh is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Silicon Valley: Inside the winners’ circle

Private tech bubble: eyes wide shut

Match Group Added to Triton Research IPO Watchlist

Match Group, an online dating business owned by media conglomerate IAC, has been added to Triton Research’s IPO Watchlist.  IAC announced today that it was planning to pursue an initial public offering for Match Group in the fourth quarter of this year.

Match Group holds a variety of popular dating websites and apps including Match.com, Tinder and OkCupid.  The IPO will consist of less than 20 percent of IAC common stock, and IAC will retain a stake in Match Group.  Match Group accounted for $239.2m of IAC’s revenue of $772.5m in the first quarter.

Match Group is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

WeWork Valuation Doubled to $10bn in Six Months

WeWork Companies Inc., a provider of shared office space to small companies and technology startups, was valued at $10bn yesterday after Fidelity and existing investors put $400m of capital into the company.  This valuation is double WeWork’s $5bn value in December 2014, and dwarfs the company’s $1.5bn valuation at the start of last year.  CEO Adam Neumann said the company hadn’t been looking for additional funding, but received inquiries from numerous investors.

WeWork is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Rapid7 Dossier Published by Triton Research

Rapid7 filed an S-1 with the SEC on June 11, 2015.  The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “RPD.”  

Triton Research published a 79-page report on Rapid7, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalization, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please call (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.56): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Company Description: Develops and sells security software and services to enterprises and medium-sized businesses in a number of ways; 1) licensed software with associated, subscription-based content and maintenance, 2) cloud-based software services, and 3) managed services where it operates the software for its customers. The Company also sells professional services.

Competitive Set: Qualys, Tenable Network Security, McAfee (IBM), IBM, Veracode

Palantir Now Valued at $20bn

Palantir Technologies, the secretive data and analytics company, is reportedly raising $500m at a $20bn valuation.  This round would make the company the third most valuable startup in the United States behind Uber and Airbnb.  Palantir was valued at $9bn in December 2013 and was reported to be worth $15bn late last year.  Current investors in Palantir include Founders Fund, 137 Ventures, Glynn Capital Management, Tiger Global Management and Reed Elsevier Ventures.

Palantir is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Credit Karma Valued at $3.5bn and Planning an IPO

Credit Karma, the online credit score provider and credit marketplace, announced a raise of $175m at a $3.5bn valuation today.  Investors in the round include Tiger Global Management, Valinor Management and Viking Global Investors.  Credit Karma has now raised $368.5m in total capital.  TechCrunch is also reporting that the company, which was founded in 2008, is on track to file for an IPO within the next year and a half.

Credit Karma is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Fitbit Counts on Women as Device Buyers Just Not Board Members

Fit, fun, flirty, and female — the “Tory Burch for Fitbit” bracelet targets women who are yogis by day and glitzy fashionistas by night.

Yet Fitbit Inc., maker of the fitness trackers inside the bracelet, debuts Thursday without a single woman on its board.

Male-only leadership at technology companies has long been a focus of critique — Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. both drew flak for the same reason. For Fitbit, though, the disparity is made more glaring by the fact that market research indicates over two thirds of its customers are women.

“It’s interesting the company has done so well with female customers so far,” said Kaylan Tildsley, a partner at Triton Research LLC. “We shall see if they can perpetuate this boys club as a public company.”

InnoLight Technology Filed for a $100m IPO

InnoLight filed an S-1 with the SEC this morning for a proposed IPO of its common stock.  The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker INLT.

Company Description: Sells hardware components (primarily optical transceiver) for fiber-optic communications.

Competitive Set: Finisar, Avago Technologies, JDS Uniphase, Sumitomo Electric, Honeywell, Belden, Perle

Airbnb Raising $1bn at a $24bn Valuation

Airbnb, the online room rental service,  is reportedly looking to close a $1bn funding round at a $24bn valuation by the end of June.  The company is telling investors to expect $850m in revenue in 2015 and $10bn by 2020.  Airbnb was last valued at $13bn.  Previous investors in the company include TPG, T. Rowe Price, Dragoneer, Founders Fund, Sequoia, DST and more.

Airbnb is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Spotify Hired A New CFO

Spotify, a music streaming service, has hired Barry McCarthy as CFO.  McCarthy, who is a member of the Spotify board and is stepping down, previously served as Netflix CFO until resigning in 2010 to pursue “broader executive opportunities.”  This hire comes one week after Spotify closed a $526m round of funding at a $8.53bn valuation.

Spotify is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

IPO: Fitbit Expected to Price After Market Close

FitBit boosted the size of its IPO to as high as $656 million amid strong demand for the shares. Triton Research CEO Rett Wallace speaks on “Market Makers.”

Is a private IPO boom underway?

Rett Wallace, Co-Founder and CEO of Triton Research, explains the difference between public and private initial public offerings (IPOs).

AppFolio Dossier Published: Company Score Revised Higher

Triton Research revised our AppFolio Inc. Company Score higher to reflect AppFolio’s amended registration with the SEC on June 15, 2015.  AppFolio plans to sell 6.2m shares and sees an offering price of $12 – $14 per share.  AppFolio will list under the symbol “APPF” and will list on the Nasdaq.

Triton Research has published a 65-page Dossier on AppFolio Inc. For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.56): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Company Description: Develops and sells cloud-based software services, on a subscription-basis, that automates business activities for small & medium businesses that manage property or provide legal services. AppFolio also sells related professional services and electronic payment services.

Competitive Set: Yardi, Easyrent, Property Solutions, Buildium, MRI Software

FitBit Price Range Raised to $17 – $19 Per Share, Deal Upsized

FitBit Inc. raised its price range for shares in its IPO to $17 – $19 from $14 – $16.  The deal – which is slated to price tomorrow night – was also upsized to 34.5m shares.  FitBit will list on the NYSE under the symbol “FIT.

Triton Research has published a 72-page Dossier on Fitbit Inc. For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.55): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Company Description: Designs and sells electronic fitness activity trackers and associated software to consumers and corporations as well as related software services (virtual coaching and content).

Competitive Set: Garmin, Jawbone, Misfit, Adidas, Nike, Apple, Archos, Microsoft, Samsung

Ooma Filed For a $100 IPO

Ooma, a consumer telecommunications company, filed an S-1 with the SEC today for a proposed IPO of its common stock.  The company plans to list on the NYSE under the ticker OOMA.

Ooma is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Xactly Dossier Published: Company Score Revised Higher

Triton Research revised our Xactly Inc. Company Score higher to reflect Xactly’s amended registration with the SEC on June 15, 2015.  Xactly plans to sell 7m shares and sees an offering price of $10 – $12 per share.  Xactly will list under the symbol “XTLY” and will list on the NYSE.

Triton Research has published a 69-page Dossier on Xactly Inc.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.55): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Company Description: Develops and sells cloud-based software and associated services that help companies manage employee compensation and performance (primarily sales employees) and are sold on a subscription basis.

Competitive Set: Anaplan, Beqom, Zoho, CallidusCloud, Netsuite, Cornerstone OnDemand

AppFolio IPO Terms Set: 6.2m Shares at $12 – $14 Per Share

AppFolio Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for its IPO this morning.  The company plans to sell 6.2m shares and sees an offering price of $12 – $14 per share.  AppFolio will list under the symbol “APPF” and will list on the Nsadaq.

Triton Research published a 65-page Dossier on AppFolio Inc. on June 1, 2015.  Our Triton Research Company Score for AppFolio is now under review.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.55): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Company Description: Develops and sells cloud-based software services, on a subscription-basis, that automates business activities for small & medium businesses that manage property or provide legal services. AppFolio also sells related professional services and electronic payment services.

Competitive Set: Yardi, Easyrent, Property Solutions, Buildium, MRI Software

Xactly IPO Terms Set: 7m Shares at $10 – $12 Per Share

Xactly Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for its IPO this morning.  The company plans to sell 7.04m shares and sees an offering price of $10 – $12 per share.  Xactly will list under the symbol “XTLY” and will list on the NYSE.

Triton Research published a 69-page Dossier on Xactly Inc. on June 8, 2015.  Our Triton Research Company Score for Xactly is now under review.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.55): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Company Description: Develops and sells cloud-based software and associated services that help companies manage employee compensation and performance (primarily sales employees) and are sold on a subscription basis.

Competitive Set: Anaplan, Beqom, Zoho, CallidusCloud, Netsuite, Cornerstone OnDemand

Square Planning To IPO This Year

Square, the merchant services aggregator and mobile payment company, will reportedly go public this year.  FORBES reports that Square is planning to file a confidential registration statement – a person familiar with the matter said “it’s going to happen soon, if it hasn’t happen already.”  Square last raised money in October 2014 at a $6bn valuation.

Square is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Rapid7 Filed for a $80m IPO

Rapid7 filed an S-1 with the SEC today for a proposed IPO of its common stock.  The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker RPD.

Company Description: Sells security software and related services to enterprises.

Competitive Set: Qualys, Tenable Network Security, Barracuda Networks, FireEye, McAfee (Intel), IBM

Spotify Closes Funding Round – Now Valued at $8.53bn

Spotify, a music streaming service, closed a $526m round of funding yesterday.  The financing – which was first reported in April – valued the company at $8.53bn.  Investors in Spotify’s latest round include Discovery Capital Management, Senvest Capital, Baillie Gifford, Landsdowne Partners, and Rinkelberg Capital.  This raise comes on the heels of the launch of Apple Music this past Monday.

Spotify is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Tech Startups Woo Investors With Unconventional Financial Metrics — but Do Numbers Add Up?

As young technology companies jostle for investors who will pour money into the firms as they try to make it big and strike it rich, some companies are using unconventional financial terms.

MINDBODY Dossier Published: Company Score Revised Higher

Triton Research revised our MINDBODY Company Score higher to reflect MINDBODY’s amended registration with the SEC on June 8, 2015.  MINDBODY plans to sell 7.15m shares and sees an offering price of $13 – $15 per share.  MINDBODY will list under the symbol “MB” and has applied to list on the Nasdaq Global Market.

Triton Research published a 67-page Dossier on MINDBODY Inc. on May 22, 2015.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.55): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Company Description: Develops and sells enterprise resource planning software to small and medium businesses in the health and beauty industry (gyms, salons, spas, etc.) on a subscription-basis, and point-of-sale hardware on a unit basis. The Company also runs a marketplace for 3rd-party software providers to sell add-ons to MINDBODY subscribers.

Competitive Set: Square, Intuit, SalonBiz, SpaBooker, Shopify, Zen Planner, Front Desk

Xactly Dossier Published

Triton Research published a 69-page Dossier on Xactly, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.56): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Company Description: Develops and sells cloud-based software and associated services that help companies manage employee compensation and performance (primarily sales employees) and are sold on a subscription basis.

Competitive Set: Anaplan, Beqom, Zoho, CallidusCloud, Netsuite, Cornerstone OnDemand

Delivery Hero Raised $110m at a $3.1bn Valuation

Delivery Hero, a takeout food service based in Berlin, raised $110m at a valuation of over $3.1bn.  Investors in the round were not named, but described as “leading public market investors” out of the U.S.  This round brings total capital raised by the company to $1bn, with nearly $600m raised this year.  Previous investors in Delivery Hero include Insight Venture Partners, General Atlantic, and Rocket Internet.

Delivery Hero CEO Niklas Östberg told TechCrunch that he thinks the company is in a position to IPO this year, but wants to “wait until we see a clear benefit from it.”

Delivery Hero is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

MINDBODY Sets IPO Terms: 7.15m Shares at $13 – $15 Per Share

MINDBODY Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for its IPO this morning.  The company plans to sell 7.15m shares and sees an offering price of $13 – $15 per share.  MINDBODY will list under the symbol “MB” and has applied to list on the Nasdaq Global Market.

Triton Research published a 67-page Dossier on MINDBODY Inc. on May 22, 2015.  Our Triton Research Company Score for MINDBODY is now under review.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.56): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Company Description: Develops and sells enterprise resource planning software to small and medium businesses in the health and beauty industry (gyms, salons, spas, etc.) on a subscription-basis, and point-of-sale hardware on a unit basis. The Company also runs a marketplace for 3rd-party software providers to sell add-ons to MINDBODY subscribers.

Competitive Set: Square, Intuit, SalonBiz, SpaBooker, Shopify, Zen Planner, Front Desk

Mutual funds chase head start on hit IPOs with pre-public investing

U.S. mutual funds are placing bigger bets on privately held companies to get a head start finding the next IPO superstar, a strategy that has yielded some dramatic payoffs and flameouts.

Coupang Received $1 Billion from SoftBank

Coupang, a Korean online retailer, received a $1bn investment from SoftBank Corp. at a $5bn valuation yesterday.  This deal is the largest Internet investment in South Korea’s history.  Coupang has raised $1.4bn in total capital since its inception in 2010, most recently $300m from Blackrock in December 2014.  Other investors in the company include Sequoia Capital, Wellington Management Company, and Illuminate Ventures.

Coupang is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Fitbit Dossier Published – Company Score Revised

Triton Research revised our Fitbit Company Score lower to reflect Fitbit’s amended registration with the SEC this morning.  Fitbit plans to sell 29.9m shares at an offering price of $14 – $16 per share.  Fitbit will list on the NYSE under the symbol “FIT.”

Triton Research published a 72-page report on Fitbit Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Private share trading takes off as tech companies shun IPOs

Fitbit Sets IPO Terms: 29.9m Shares at $14 – $16 Per Share

FitBit Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for its IPO this morning.  The company plans to sell 29.9mn Shares (22.4m Primary/7.5mn Secondary) and sees an offering price of $14 – $16 per share.  FitBit will list on the NYSE under the symbol “FIT.

Triton Research published a 72-page Dossier on Fitbit Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Silicon Valley on the cutting edge in trade-secret lawsuits

With predictable efficiency, the tech industry turns out new smartphones, apps and ideas. Just as common are lawsuits that accuse competing companies of stealing intellectual property.

The factor that drives those lawsuits is competition — the very thing that many argue makes Silicon Valley so successful.

But the way startups are funded fosters an especially competitive atmosphere, said Rett Wallace, co-founder and chief executive officer of Triton Research. Look no further than Uber and Lyft, Airbnb and HomeAway, or YouTube and Vimeo to see that many of them deliver darn near the same thing to consumers.

“Variations on a theme is how you get funded. You have to be more like the competitors rather than less like the competitors to get funded, because the more different you are, the more risk you represent,” he said.

Snapchat Raising Money at a $16bn Valuation

Snapchat, the ephemeral messaging service, is reportedly raising money at a $16bn valuation.  Potential investors in the $650mn round include Fidelity, Alibaba, Glade Brook Capital and York Capital.  CEO Evan Spiegel revealed plans for an eventual IPO earlier this week.  Snapchat – which was valued at $15bn in March – has raised $848m in total capital since it was founded in 2011.

Snapchat is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Snapchat Planning for IPO

Snapchat, the ephemeral messaging service, is reportedly planning an IPO.  CEO Evan Spiegel said yesterday at the Re/code Conference in L.A., “We need to IPO. We have a plan to do that.”  Snapchat, which declined Facebook’s $3bn acquisition offer in 2013, was last valued at $10bn in December.  It was reported this past February that Snapshat was looking to raise $500m at a $19bn valuation.

Snapchat is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Alarm.com Filed for a $75mn IPO

Alarm.com Holdings filed an S-1 with the SEC on May 22, 2015 for a proposed IPO of its common stock.  The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker ALRM.

Company Description: Alarm.com sells home security and home automation hardware and management software.

Competitive Set: Nest Labs (Google), AT&T, Comcast, iControl Networks, Leviton, Samsung, ADT, Honeywel

What’s Behind the Slow Down in U.S. IPOs?

Triton Research Partner Kaylan Tildsley discusses the slump in the U.S. IPO market. Bloomberg’s Leslie Picker also speaks on “Bloomberg Markets.” 

Hootsuite IPO Coming Soon

Hootsuite Media, a platform for enterprises to manage their presence on social media sites, is contemplating moving up its IPO timeline after Shopify’s positive debut yesterday.  Ryan Holmes, the CEO of Hootsuite, said “I’ve talked about 18 to 24 months [until an IPO], but I’m very bullish given the success that Shopify has had, and maybe we will want to speed that up a little bit.”  Hootsuite last raised $60m in September, bringing total financing to date to $250m.

Hootsuite is a members of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Stripe Raising Money at a $5bn Valuation Seven Months After Raising at a $3.5bn Valuation

Stripe, a payments startup, is reportedly in talks to raise an undisclosed sum of money at a $5bn valuation.  This comes less than seven months after Stripe announced a $70m round that valued the company at $3.5bn.  Stripe has raised $190m in total capital to date.  Investors in Stripe include Thrive Capital, Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures.

Stripe is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Xactly Filed For An IPO

Xactly filed an S-1 with the SEC today for a proposed IPO of its common stock.  The company plans to list on the NYSE under the ticker XTLY.

Company Description: Xactly sells cloud-based software to Enterprises and SMBs for managing sales commissions and analyzing sales team performance.

Competitive Set: NetSuite, Cornerstone Software, QCommission, Anaplan, Plex Systems, CallidusCloud

Flipkart Now Valued at $15.5bn

Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce site, is now valued at $15.5bn after raising $550m from existing investors.  This raise – which was led by Tiger Global Management – makes Flipkart the third most valuable privately-held startup company in the world.  Flipkart has now raised over $3bn in total capital from investors such as Accel Partners, T. Rowe Price Associates, DST Global, Naspers, GIC, and Qatar Investment Authority.

Flipkart is a members of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

AppFolio Filed For An IPO

AppFolio filed an S-1 with the SEC today for a proposed IPO of its common stock.  The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker APPF.

Company Description: AppFolio sells web-based software to SMB property management companies. The software includes tools for vacancy posting, work-order management, online rent collection, applicant screening, and other operations.

Competitive Set: Yardi, Easyrent, Property Solutions, Buildium, MRI Software

Fitbit Dossier Published by Triton Research

Triton Research published a 72-page Dossier on Fitbit Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.57): Contact Triton Research for more details.

Company Description: Designs and sells electronic fitness activity trackers and associated software to consumers and corporations as well as related software services (virtual coaching and content).

Competitive Set: Garmin, Jawbone, Misfit, Adidas, Nike, Apple, Archos, Microsoft, Samsung

DocuSign Valued at $3bn, Blue Apron Valued at $2bn

DocuSign, the digital signature software company, raised $233m at a $3bn valuation.  This round – which brings total capital to over $440bn – is almost double the $1.6bn valuation DocuSign took in March 2014.  Brookside Capital led the round and was joined by Generation Investment Management, ClearBridge Investments, Iconiq Capital, Wasatch Advisors, Wellington Management, and Sands Capital Ventures.  Existing investors in Docusign include strategic funds such as Google Ventures, SAP Ventures, VISA, Salesforce, Samsung Venture Investment Corp., Telstra and Comcast.

Blue Apron, a meal-kit delivery startup, is reportedly in talks to raise money at a valuation of ~$2bn.  The company – which raised $50m in April 2014 at a $500m valuation – is seeking to raise more than $100m from investors.  Fidelity is rumored to be participating in the round.  Existing investors in Blue Apron include Bessemer Venture Partners, First Round Capital, the Stripes Group and Box Group.

DocuSign and Blue Apron are members of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 106 companies organized by investment theme.

Baozun Score Revised Higher to 6.44

Triton Research increased Baozun Inc.’s Company Score to 6.44 from 6.39 following the company’s S-1/A filing on May, 8, 2015.

Baozun plans to sell 11mn shares at an offering price of $12 – $14 per share.  Baozun will list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “BZUN.”

Triton Research published a 59-page report on Baozun Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.55): 6.44 (previously 6.39)

Company Description: Helps foreign brand manufacturers sell their goods to consumers in China. It does this as an exclusive retailer, taking inventory risk and selling through wholly owned channels that are official brand stores and as a services provider agent running their Chinese retail operations selling product through customers online stores and official marketplace stores such as Tmall, JD.com, Weixin, and Amazon.

Competitive Set: PFSweb, Speed Commerce, Arvato, Transcosmo, Web2Asia, Lili&Beauty, Oriental Logistics

Uber Nearing $50bn Valuation

Uber Technologies, the mobile car-booking company, is reportedly in talks to raise $1.5 – 2bn at a $50bn valuation.  This round would make Uber the most valuable privately-funded startup in the world.  Uber has raised over $4bn since its inception in 2009, $2.4bn of which came in June and December of last year.

Uber is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Baozun Sets IPO Terms: 11mn Shares at $12 – $14 Per Share

Baozun Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock last night.  The company plans to sell 11m shares and sees an offering price of $12 – $14 per share.  Baozun will list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “BZUN.”

Triton Research published a 59-page report on Baozun Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.54): 6.39 – UNDER REVIEW

Company Description: Helps foreign brand manufacturers sell their goods to consumers in China. It does this as an exclusive retailer, taking inventory risk and selling through wholly owned channels that are official brand stores and as a services provider agent running their Chinese retail operations selling product through customers online stores and official marketplace stores such as Tmall, JD.com, Weixin, and Amazon.

Competitive Set: PFSweb, Speed Commerce, Arvato, Transcosmo, Web2Asia, Lili&Beauty, Oriental Logistic

Shopify Score Revised Higher to 7.64

Triton Research published a 59-page report on Shopify Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.55): 7.64 (previously 7.51)

Company Description: Develops and sells cloud-based software that allows small and medium businesses to create and operate their own branded online stores.

Competitive Set: Intuit, GoDaddy, Web.com Group, United Internet, Magento (eBay), Volusion, Bigcommerce, Squarespace, HiiDef, Square

Zenefits Valued at $4.5bn

Zenefits, a two year-old cloud software startup that helps small companies manage employee benefits, has been added to Triton Research’s IPO Watchlist after raising $500m at an implied valuation of $4.5bn.

The deal is the largest funding event for a cloud software company since Workday went public in 2012 and brings Zenefits’ total capital raised to +$581m.  Fidelity Management and TPG led the round, and were joined by Andreessen Horowitz, Insight Venture Partners, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and Sound Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), and the actor Jared Leto.

Zenefits is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Evolent Health Files For $100m IPO

Evolent Health filed an S-1 with the SEC today for a proposed IPO of its common stock.  The company plans to list on the NYSE under the ticker EVH.

Company Description: Provides healthcare service management and value-based contract billing software to health plans, third-party payers and self-funded employers.

Competitive Set: McKesson, TriZetto Group, Benefitfocus, DST Health Solutions, CGI

Twilio Valued at +$1 Billion

Twilio, a cloud communication company that gives developers the ability to add SMS, voice, and VoIP functionality to their applications, raised a $100m Series E round yesterday.  The round – which essentially matches the $103m Twilio had previously raised – valued the company at over $1bn.  Twilio was last valued at $500m in June 2013.  Lead investors in the round were Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Redpoint Ventures.

Twilio is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Vice Media on Track to Generate Nearly $1bn in 2015 Revenue

Vice Media, an online media outlet, reportedly generated $500m in revenue in 2014.  The company was profiled by the New York Times in an article that claims Vice is worth $4bn and is on track to achieve $915m in revenues this year.  CEO Shane Smith said that he would consider taking the company public if Vice’s valuation gets much higher.

Vice Media is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Spotify Valued at $8bn

CNBC is reporting that Spotify, a music streaming service, raised $350m at a $8bn valuation.  This comes after the WSJ said the company was raising $400m at a $8.4bn valuation on April 10, 2015.  Spotify’s last fundraise in November 2013 valued the company at $4bn.

Spotify is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Warby Parker Valued at $1.2bn

Warby Parker, a vertical commerce eyewear company, announced a $100m round of funding today. The raise was led by T. Rowe Price and values the company at $1.2bn. Wellington Management and previous backers Tiger Global and General Catalyst also invested in the round. Warby Parker has raised a total of $215m and has more than doubled its valuation since its last funding round in December 2013.

Warby Parker is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired. The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Nutanix Hiring Banks For An IPO

Nutanix, an enterprise virtualization and storage company, is reportedly hiring underwriters for an IPO later this year.  The offering could value the company at more than $2.5bn.  Nutanix has raised over $310m from investors including Fidelity Investments, Wellington Management, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Riverwood, Khosla Ventures, Battery Ventures, Blumberg Capital, SAP Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Nutanix is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Baozun Scored 6.39 by Triton Research

Triton Research published a 59-page report on Baozun Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Company Score (avg. 6.54): 6.39

Company Description: Helps foreign brand manufacturers sell their goods to consumers in China. It does this as an exclusive retailer, taking inventory risk and selling through wholly owned channels that are official brand stores and as a services provider agent running their Chinese retail operations selling product through customers online stores and official marketplace stores such as Tmall, JD.com, Weixin, and Amazon.

Competitive Set: PFSweb, Speed Commerce, Arvato, Transcosmo, Web2Asia, Lili&Beauty, Oriental Logistics

Funding Circle Valued at $1 Billion

Funding Circle, a British online SMB loan marketplace, raised $150m on April 22, 2015.  The round – which was lead by DST Global, BlackRock, and Temasek – valued the company at $1bn.  Funding Circle has now raised a total of $273.2m since its inception in 2009.

Funding Circle is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Just-Launched Domo Preparing to IPO

Domo, a business management platform that officially launched this month, is already making plans to go public. Domo CEO Josh James made comments at Code Enterprise: San Francisco yesterday that the company will be ready to go public in six months, but will likely go in 12 to 18 months. Domo was valued at $2bn in its last funding round on April 8, 2015.

Domo is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired. The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Why this year’s IPOs have been awful

IPOs have often been a mixed bag. And there have always been some duds. But historically the companies that go public have been up-and-comers. This year’s crop seems like a mixture of has-beens, misfits, and never-weres. GoDaddy, the biggest tech company to IPO in 2015 so far, is years past its buzzy Super Bowl ad prime and still doesn’t make money. Several recent biotech debuts are years away from a breakthrough drug. And execs at crafting website Etsy say the company is not about profits.

Facebook can take some of the credit. The social media giant’s 2012 dud of a launch has become a cautionary tale. Then, in 2013, the Jobs Act made it easier to raise money as a private company. Tech startups raised $9 billion privately in the first quarter, or 13 times the $710 million raised through public offerings, according to Triton Research. The companies that aren’t hurting for investors, like Uber and Airbnb, have so far opted out of the public markets and the headaches that come with them.

Baozun Inc. Files for IPO

Baozun Inc. filed an S-1 with the SEC on April 17, 2015 for a proposed IPO of its common stock. Baozun, which is backed by Alibaba, initially filed confidentially on December 18, 2014.

Company Description: Baozun provides e-commerce solutions to businesses, including IT, Customer, logistics and marketing services.

Competitive Set: ShopEx, Wowo, Tencent, JD.com, meituan.com, diaping.com, Amazon

Wall Street isn’t holding Etsy’s lack of profit against it

Etsy (ETSY), the online crafts marketplace, has become the latest company to reap the benefits of an initial public offering even though it hasn’t earned a dime in profits.

“There is good reason to believe that the company will become profitable on the bottom line in the future,” Rett Wallace, CEO of Triton Research, told CBS MoneyWatch, adding that might happen within five years.

Etsy Raises $267 Million in IPO, Prices At Top of Range

Triton Research CEO Rett Wallace and Bloomberg’s Leslie Picker discuss the planned IPOs of Etsy, Virtu and Party City with Bloomberg‘s Pimm Fox on “Taking Stock.”

 

 

Online Crafts Marketplace Etsy Prepares For Public Offering

Etsy — the company best known for selling handmade goods — is going public. The financial media is having a lot of fun with this IPO, even mocking it as “artisanal.” But it’s actually serious business. The company has grown steadily and is considered one of the more promising recent IPO

“One of the things that we really like about Etsy – we have a very high score on this company – is that the intrinsic model that they use is a very attractive model financially.”  Rett Wallace with Triton Research analyzes private companies. And by intrinsic model, he means Etsy doesn’t have to buy products like a traditional retailer. The website is a platform that connects vendors and customers without requiring Etsy to hold onto inventory that could lose value or collect dust.

Shopify Files for IPO

Shopify Inc., an online service for creating and operating web stores, filed to raise $100m in an initial public offering. The Company operates worldwide and has booked $124m in LTM Revenue with a 110% ’12-’14 Rev CAGR.

Current Shopify investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, Klister Credit Corp., OMERS Ventures, Georgian Partners.  Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, RBC Dominion Securities  have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on May 18, 2015.

Spotify Nearing $8bn Valuation

Spotify, a music streaming service, is reportedly close to raising $400m at a valuation of $8.4bn. This valuation is more than double its publicly-traded competitor Pandora ($3.55bn). Investors in the Spotify round include Goldman Sachs and Abu Dhabi.

Spotify is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Even Etsy’s Initial Public Offering Process Is Artisanal

Leave it to Etsy Inc. to craft an artisanal public offering.

The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods has altered the playbook for its initial public offering, launching an expansive effort to attract small investors and focusing on fewer big investors, according to people familiar with the deal.

But going off script comes with some risk. The moves include limiting the amount of stock retail investors can get in the IPO to $2,500 so more individuals can take part, and concentrating many of the shares among a relatively small number of big holders. The approach could turn off some traders whose presence can help stabilize a stock once it begins trading.

“In the long run, [the IPO process] likely won’t matter to Etsy’s share price,” said Rett Wallace, co-founder of Triton Research LLC. “But it will make some people scream in the short term.”

Pure Storage Preparing for IPO

Pure Storage, a flash storage company, has reportedly hired Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Barclays for an initial public offering.  This comes after a funding round in April 2014 valued the company at over $3bn.  Pure Storage has raised over $470mn from investors including Sutter Hill, Greylock, Redpoint, Index Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity and Wellington Management.  The IPO could come later this year.

Pure Storage is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.

Etsy’s IPO Is a Direct Challenge to Wall Street’s Beliefs

Etsy’s initial public offering is about to question Wall Street’s conscience: Will investors embrace a company that wants to do good while it does well?

“It’s like a beautiful test in a way to see if it’s possible to have a mission beyond money,” said Rett Wallace, chief executive officer of Triton Research. “You see these situations all the time where even when management is doing their best to take every penny off the table—regardless of what it does to the widows and orphans—you often see fund managers saying, ‘You’re not doing enough to make money.'”

TransUnion Files for IPO

TransUnion Corp., seller of credit reporting and analytics software to consumers and businesses, filed to raise $100m in an initial public offering. The Company operates worldwide and has booked $1,305m in LTM Revenue with a 10% ’13-’14 Rev CAGR.

Current TransUnion investors include Advent International Corporation and Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BofA Merrill Lynch, and Deutsche Bank  have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on May 7, 2015.

Etsy Price Range Set – Triton Research Score Revised Lower to 7.31

Triton Research has updated the Etsy  Inc. Dossier to reflect the Company’s S-1 Amendment on March 31, 2015.  The Company Score decreased to 7.34 from 7.31.  Etsy plans to sell 16.6m shares and sees an offering price of $14 – $16 per share.  The Company will list on the NASDAQ under the symbol “ETSY”.

Triton Research published a 61-page report on Etsy Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

The Internet’s first gatekeepers are getting older, and the Web is leaving them behind

GoDaddy, the world’s biggest provider of domain names (like washingtonpost.com) and a major cheerleader of risqué TV ads, saw its stock price climb 30 percent Wednesday, to about $26 a share, during its first day of public trading.

The strong day-one bounce means investors believe that GoDaddy still has room to grow, even if, as analysts with Triton Research wrote, “recent competitive and internal changes could impact its market positioning.”

APIGEE CORPORATION Scored 4.83 – Triton Research Dossier Published

The Triton Research Dossier on Apigee has been published.  Apigee’s Triton Research Score of 4.83 is one of the lowest since we started scoring companies, primarily due to its poor disclosure.  The company is a decade old but is still quite small and has significant net income losses.  Apigee no longer provides data on the number of customers or retention rates, making it impossible to model and forcing investors to wonder why they stopped offering certain metrics.  Investors should be wary if Apigee refuses to provide more information about its business.

Triton Research has published a 60-page report on Apigee Corporation containing product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Slack Nearing $2 Billion Valuation

Slack Technologies Inc., the enterprise collaboration service, is reportedly in talks to raise financing at a valuation of more than $2 billion.  This comes after Slack raised $120 million at a valuation of $1.12 billion in October.  The company has raised $180 million to date.  Investors in Slack include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Google Ventures, Accel Partners and Andreessen Horowitz.

Slack is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 103 companies organized by investment theme.

Tech Money Sends Funds on the Hunt for Unicorns

The retirement accounts of millions of Americans have long contained shares of stalwart companies like General Electric, Ford and Coca-Cola. Today, they are likely to include riskier private stocks from Silicon Valley start-ups like Uber, Airbnb and Pinterest.

Big money managers including Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price and BlackRock have all struck deals worth billions of dollars to acquire shares of these private companies that are then pooled into mutual funds that go into the 401(k)’s and individual retirement accounts of many Americans. With private tech companies growing faster than companies on the stock market, the money managers are aiming to get a piece of the action.

IPO Filing – Apigee Corporation

Apigee Corp., developer of software for designing, creating and analyzing data using APIs, filed to raise $86m in an initial public offering. The Company operates worldwide and has booked $62m in LTM Revenue with a 10% ’12-’14 Rev CAGR.

Current Apigee investors include Bay Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Third Point Partners, and Wellington Management Company. Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, and Credit Suisse have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on April 23, 2015.

GoDaddy, Inc. Score Revised Higher to 5.82 – Triton Research Dossier Updated

Triton Research has updated the GoDaddy, Inc. Dossier to reflect the Company’s S-1 Amendment on March 19, 2015.  The company Score increased to 5.82 from 5.71.  GoDaddy filed to sell 22m shares and sees an offering price of $17 – $19 per share.  GoDaddy will list on the NYSE under the symbol “GDDY”.

Triton Research published a 57-page report on GoDaddy Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

GoDaddy Sets IPO Terms: 22m Shares at $17 – $19 Per Share

GoDaddy, Inc.  filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock.  The company plans to sell 22m shares and sees an offering price of $17 – $19 per share. GoDaddy will list on the NYSE under the symbol “GDDY”.

Triton Research published a 57-page report on GoDaddy Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at kaylan@triton-research.com or (212) 804-6151.

Warby Parker Hires Goldman Sachs

Warby Parker, a vertical commerce eyewear company, has hired Goldman Sachs to assist with its fundraising options.  The company is reportedly considering filing for an IPO under the Jobs Act.  The company may also raise more private capital after receiving investor interest at a valuation of $1 billion.  Current investors in Warby Parker include Tiger Global Management, General Catalyst Partners, First Round Capital, and American Express.

Warby Parker is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 101 companies organized by investment theme.

Uber CFO Steps Down

Uber Technologies, the mobile car-booking company, announced this afternoon that CFO Brent Callinicos is stepping down.  Callinicos joined Uber in 2013 from Google and helped the company raise more than $5 billion in capital. No replacement has been named but former Goldman Sachs VP Gautam Gupta will be acting head of finance.  Uber was valued at $41 billion in a funding round last December.

Uber is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 101 companies organized by investment theme.

How’s This Going To End? Private Market Fundraising Is 31x Bigger Than Public Market

The U.S. market is showing severe signs of IPO constipation.  There are 104 companies currently on our Triton Research IPO Watchlist, including all of the “unicorns” that continue to attract investor interest the private market.  But U.S. tech companies have overwhelmingly opted to avoid IPOs, raising money privately instead.  And the lack of IPO filings indicates it will stay that way in the near term.

Snapchat Receives $200mn from Alibaba

Snapchat, the ephemeral messaging service, has received a $200 million investment from Alibaba.  The investment gives Snapchat a $15 billion valuation and comes after the company was reportedly valued at $10 billion at the end of 2014.  Investors in Snapchat include Yahoo, IVP and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Snapchat is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 111 companies organized by investment theme.

InMobi in Talks to be Bought by Google

InMobi, a Bangalore-based mobile advertising platform, reportedly may be bought by Google.  InMobi, which was founded in 2007, helps companies target phones and mobile devices in their advertising.  Talks are still at an early stage, but InMobi would likely be valued at around $1 billion.  Current investors in InMobi include SoftBank and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

InMobi is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 111 companies organized by investment theme.

Sizing Up Bill Gurley’s “Bubble” And The End Of The IPO

Bill Gurley is one of the best and most prominent venture capitalists in the U.S. right now.  And let’s be honest, the current tech valuation climate has been very kind to him.  So when he blogs about the “b word” (bubble) and follows it up with a media tour, no wonder serious people pay attention. Interestingly, in the intervening two weeks the market has made him look like a genius, while totally disregarding his warnings.

SoFi Aiming for IPO in 2H15

Social Finance, the peer-to-peer (P2P) student loan startup, is reportedly planning a $500m IPO in the second half of this year.  SoFi is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on the deal and plans to file its prospectus confidentially in the second quarter.  The offering would value SoFi at $3.5bn.

SoFi is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 111 companies organized by investment theme.

Evernote Hires CFO

Evernote, a cloud-based note-taking and storage mobile app, hired a new CFO yesterday.  Jeff Shotts, the former CFO of ModCloth and a former finance executive at eBay, was named to the position in a blog post by Evernote CEO Phil Libin.  This move is being viewed as a hint that the company is gearing up for an IPO.  Evernote has a valuation of approximately $1bn.

Evernote is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 111 companies organized by investment theme.

IPO Filing – Etsy, Inc.

Etsy, Inc., an online marketplace for buying and selling handmade goods, craft supplies and antiques, filed to raise $100m in an initial public offering. The Company operates worldwide and has booked $196m in LTM Revenue with a 62% ’12-’14 Gross Rev CAGR.

Current Etsy investors include Accel Partners, Index Ventures, Tiger Global Management, and Union Square Ventures.  Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Allen & Co. have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on April 5, 2015.

Etsy Files For $100m IPO

Etsy, an online marketplace focused on handmade, vintage and craft items, filed an S-1 this evening for a $100m IPO.  The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “ETSY.”

Etsy is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 111 companies organized by investment theme.

Nextdoor Valued at $1.1 Billion

Nextdoor, a private social network for neighborhoods and municipalities, announced a capital raise of $110m today.  The new money, which comes from Redpoint Ventures and Insight Venture Partners, values the company at ~$1.1bn.  Nextdoor has now raised a total of $210m in capital.  Previous investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Tiger Global Management, Comcast Ventures, Greylock Partners, and Shasta Ventures.

Nextdoor is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 111 companies organized by investment theme.

Veracode Planning a May IPO

Veracode, a software app security company, has filed confidentially for an IPO and is planning to go public in May.  Veracode is said to have already picked banks to underwrite the offering.  The IPO is expected to value the company at approximately twice the $450m valuation Veracode receive in a $40m funding round last September.  Veracode has raised a total of $110m in capital to date.

Veracode is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 111 companies organized by investment theme.

Airbnb Seeking $20bn Valuation

Airbnb, the online room rental service, is in the process of raising a round of funding that will value it at $20bn.  The company is reportedly raising close to $1bn, with half of that secured. To date Airbnb has disclosed raising nearly $800m. Previous investors in the company include TPG, T. Rowe Price, Dragoneer, Founders Fund, Sequoia, DST and more…

Airbnb is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 111 companies organized by investment theme.

MAXPOINT INTERACTIVE Score Revised Higher to 6.24 – Triton Research Dossier Updated

Triton Research updated our MaxPoint Interactive Dossier to reflect the Company’s S-1 Amendment on February 23, 2015.  Our company score increased to 6.24 from 6.17.  MaxPoint filed to sell 6.5m shares and sees an offering price of $10.50 – $12.50 per share.  MaxPoint will list on the NYSE under the symbol “MXPT”.

Triton Research published a 57-page report on MaxPoint Interactive containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Uber and Lyft Force Investors to Play Favorites

In their current fundraising efforts, both Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. have asked potential investors to sign agreements stating they won’t invest in competitors for a period of six months to a year, according to people familiar with the policies. Investors are asked to sign the pledge before seeing any internal company data that could help them make a decision, the people said.

While venture firms typically refrain from investing in competing startups to avoid conflicts of interest, it is unusual for a company to require this level of commitment before an investment decision is made. That suggests Uber and Lyft are confident investor demand for their equity remains strong despite soaring valuations, said Rett Wallace, chief executive of Triton Research LLC, which does research on private companies.

“I’ve never heard of a company doing this,” Mr. Wallace said. “But it’s not like it doesn’t make sense. There have to be some benefits of being private, including not showing your numbers to people you don’t want to. If a company has the leverage to do it, then there’s no reason why they shouldn’t.”

GoDaddy S-1/A Filed: Seeking NYSE Listing Under Symbol GDDY

GoDaddy Inc. filed an amended S-1/A this evening.  The company is seeking to list on the NYSE under ticker symbol “GDDY.”

Triton Research has published a 59-page report on GoDaddy Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more. 

Bloomberg Surveillance

Who’s on Triton Research’s IPO List?

Triton Research Co-Founder and CEO Rett Wallace discusses the IPO market on “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

How Snapchat and WhatsApp Are Disrupting Tech

Triton Research Co-Founder and CEO Rett Wallace discusses disruption in the tech industry. He speaks on “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

MAXPOINT INTERACTIVE Sets IPO Terms 6.5m Shares at $10.50 – $12.50 per Share – Triton Research Score Under Review

MaxPoint Interactive filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock.  The company plans to sell 6.5m shares and sees an offering price of $10.50 – $12.50 per share.  MaxPoint will list on the NYSE under the symbol “MXPT”.

Triton Research published a 57-page report on MaxPoint Interactive containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Bill Gurley: FOMO in the ‘Private IPO’ Market Is Fueling Valuations

After speaking about the risks of “cramming” too much money in startups at the Goldman Sachs technology conference last week, venture capitalist Bill Gurley exited the stage.

More than a dozen investors swarmed the lanky partner of Benchmark, eager to speak with him— but few were planning to heed the venture capitalist’s advice. According to Gurley, one man, who represented a large mutual fund, asked, “You don’t want us to invest in this but the big tech stocks are not delivering enough growth and my competitors are getting into these startups, so what are we supposed to do?”

Gurley says he didn’t have a good answer but he wasn’t surprised by the sentiment, which he describes as FOMO, a slang popular among millennials that stands for “fear of missing out.”

Pinterest Seeking Valuation of $11bn

Pinterest, the online scrapbooking site, is reportedly in talks to raise $500m in coming weeks.  This round of funding is expected to value Pinterest at ~$11bn, more than twice the $5bn valuation the company was assigned when it last raised funds last May.  Prior to this round Pinterest had raised a total of $764m from investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Valiant Capital Partners and Rakuten  Inc.  It is unclear whether any new investors will join the latest round.

Pinterest is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

Uber Expands Funding Round

Uber, the mobile car-booking company, expanded its Series E round of venture financing by $1bn today.  This move brings total capacity for the round up to $2.8bn and comes just weeks after the company closed a $1.2bn round of financing.  Uber has now raised close to $5bn in private funding since it was founded in 2009.  The company’s $40bn valuation remains unchanged since December.

Uber is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme

Dropbox Hires New CFO

Dropbox, the cloud storage company, replaced its insider CFO Sujay Jaswa with former Motorola Mobility CFO Vanessa Wittman yesterday afternoon.  Wittman has longtime experience in the public sector, raising questions about the company’s IPO plans.  Dropbox was previously expected to IPO in 2016 and is reportedly working on additional funding that could raise its market value to $11 billion.

Dropbox is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme.

MAXPOINT INTERACTIVE Scored 6.17 – Triton Research Dossier Published

The Triton Research Dossier on MaxPoint Interative has been published.  According to the Dossier, MaxPoint Interactive offers a differentiated online marketing service used by major national brand advertisers that helps them drive in-store sales. The Company was break-even in 2013 at only $66m in revenues, but operating profit and free cash flow have deteriorated in 2014 as sales and marketing costs have increased. While the product is differentiated, this potentially limits the addressable market. The Company’s disclosure is lacking, making it difficult to understand its customer acquisition costs. But for its top 25 customers revenue per campaign has been dropping over the last two fiscal years.  MaxPoint’s 6.17 Triton Research company score is below our average of 6.54.

Triton Research published a 57-page report on MaxPoint Interactive containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Atlassian Hires CFO

Atlassian, a company that sells collaboration tools to large enterprises, hired Erik Bardman as its CFO today.  Bardman replaces C. Alex Estevez who served as the company’s CFO from 2011 to last October.  This move is being viewed as a hint that the company is gearing up for an IPO.  Atlassian’s last funding round came with a valuation of $3.3 billion.

Atlassian is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 108 companies organized by investment theme,

Heat Death: Venture Capital in the 1980s

The history repeats itself crowd thinks that that there must be a bubble sooner or later. “Now?” they constantly ask, “Is it a bubble now?” as if history has to repeat whatever was most memorable about the last time. History may repeat itself, but there’s an awful lot of history that this particular venture capital cycle could repeat. Below is a short history of venture capital in the 1980s, my interpretation and comparison to the ’90s and today, and some thoughts about what that means.

Delivery Hero Receives $568m from Rocket Internet

Delivery Hero, an online food takeaway service, received $568m from Rocket  Internet AG in exchange for a 30% stake.  This transaction valued Delivery Hero at almost $2bn.  Other investors in the four-year-old company include Insight Venture Partners LP, Kite Ventures PE, ru-Net Ltd., Point Nine Capital, Phenomen Ventures and Vostok Nafta Investment Ltd.

Delivery Hero is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 107 companies organized by investment theme.

SoFi Raises $200m Ahead of IPO

Social Finance Inc., or SoFi, raised $200mn in a Series D funding round on February 3, 2015.  The round valued the peer-to-peer (P2P) student loan startup at $1.3bn.  Third Point Ventures led the round, which also included Wellington Management Company, Institutional Venture Partners and existing investors. SoFi has now raised $766m and is reportedly eyeing an IPO later this year.

Social Finance Inc. is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 107 companies organized by investment theme.

IPO Filing – Maxpoint Interactive, Inc.

Maxpoint Interactive, Inc., a marketing automation software company focused on location-based targeting to national brand advertisers, filed to raise $75m in an initial public offering. The Company operates in the U.S. and U.K. and has booked $92m in LTM Revenue with a 112% ’11-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current Maxpoint investors include Trinity Ventures, Madrona Venture Funds, Performance Equity Management.  Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on March 12, 2015.

Hootsuite Media Planning A 2016 IPO

Hootsuite Media, a platform for enterprises to manage their presence on social media sites, is reportedly planning a 2016 IPO.  CEO Ryan Holmes stated “We are building the foundations and best practices of a public company, and have a lot of interest in an offering, which may happen in 18-24 months.”  Hootsuite last raised $60m in September, bringing total financing to date to $250m.

Hootsuite Media is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 107 companies organized by investment theme.

Box financials ‘ugly’: Pro

Rett Wallace, Triton Research co-founder and CEO, provides insight into Box’s key investors; financials and competitors.

MapR Planning a 2015 IPO

MapR Technologies, an open-source Hadoop distribution vendor, is preparing for an IPO in late 2015 according to a Fortune interview with CEO John Schroeder.  The company hired a new CFO last year and raised $100m in June.

MapR  is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 107 companies organized by investment theme.

Etsy Prepping for IPO

Etsy Inc., an online marketplace focused on handmade, vintage and craft items, is preparing for an IPO that reportedly could take place as soon as this quarter.  Etsy is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on the offering.

Etsy is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 107 companies organized by investment theme.

BOX Score Revised to 5.60 – Triton Research Dossier Updated

Triton Research updated our Box Inc. report to reflect the Company’s S-1 Amendment on January 9, 2014.  Our company score increased to 5.60 from 5.30.  Box filed to sell 12.5m shares and sees an offering price of $11-$13 per share.  Box will list on the NYSE under the symbol “BOX”.

Triton Research has published a 64-page report on Box, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

BOX Sets IPO Terms: 12.5m Shares at $11-$13 per Share – Triton Research Score Under Review

Box Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock.  The company plans to sell 12.5m shares and sees an offering price of $11 – $13 per share.  Box plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol “BOX”.

Triton Research has published a 64-page report on Box Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

IPO Filing – Inovalon Holdings, Inc.

Inovalon Holdings, Inc., a healthcare data integration, analytics and health process management software company, filed to raise $500m in an initial public offering. The Company operates in the U.S. and has booked $336m in LTM Revenue with a 11% ’12-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current Inovalon investors include Keith Dunleavy, Andre Hoffmann, Rick Lasch, and Suzanne Lasch.  Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on February 5, 2015.

IPOs Redefine Finance

This year closes with a handful of initial public offerings for unusual financial institutions—ones that investors are likely to see a lot more of in 2015.

First, on Dec. 10, came LendingClub (ticker: LC) the peer-to-peer lender that lets participants make loans to other individuals through the Internet for as much as $100,000, according to New York-based Triton Research. The shares went public at $15, before skyrocketing 72% to close at $25.74 on Dec. 26.

How to Be an Expert in a Changing World

When experts are wrong, it’s often because they’re experts on an earlier version of the world.

Lending Club banks 56% surge on debut

HORTONWORKS Scored 5.11 – Triton Research Dossier Published

The Triton Research Dossier on Hortonworks, Inc. has been published.  According to the Dossier, Hortonworks is a young company with limited (product launched 2012) and poorly-disclosed operating metrics.  Although management is considered strong, the Company has significant ownership among “customers” including Yahoo! and HP.  Hortonworks produces large ongoing net losses and negative free cash flow – it is difficult to understand how this Company will get to profitability.  One potential tailwind for Hortonworks is its deal dynamics – the offering is relatively small, its syndicate and lead VC investor are strong, and insider buying is backed into the transaction.  Ultimately if Hadoop becomes as important as Linux and if Hortonworks executes, then Hortonworks could become something like Red Hat…however the deal is priced at Red Hat’s current multiple.

Triton Research has published a 56-page report on Hortonworks containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

NEW RELIC Updates IPO Price Range to $20-22 from $18-20

New Relic filed an S-1 Amendment increasing the Company’s IPO price range to $20-$22 from the previous range of $18-$20.  New Relic is still slated to price on December 12, 2014 and will trade on the NYSE under the symbol “NEWR”.

Triton Research published a 54-page report on New Relic containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

LENDING CLUB Updates IPO Price Range to $12-14 from $10-12

Lending Club filed an S-1 Amendment this morning increasing the Company’s IPO price range to $12-$14 from the previous range of $10-$12.  Lending Club is still slated to price on December 11, 2014 and will trade on the NYSE under the symbol “LC”.

Triton Research published a 53-page report on Lending Club containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Tech Stocks: Sizing Up the New Bubble

Rett Wallace, founder of Triton Research, thinks IPOs are likely to be even worse bets in coming years. “That’s because much of the growth has been claimed. The formative years of a company’s life have been captured by venture capitalists and a handful of investors willing to brave the opacity of the private market for outsize returns,” Wallace says. “Airbnb is America’s largest hotel company. It’s still private.”

LendingClub an Alibaba-Sized Opportunity: Wallace

Rett Wallace, chief executive officer at Triton Research, discusses shadow banking, the emergence of peer-to-peer lending and why he sees LendingClub as a tremendous opportunity and Uber’s $40 billion valuation. He speaks on “Market Makers.”

ONDECK CAPITAL Score Remains 7.21 – Triton Research Dossier Updated

Triton Research updated our OnDeck Capital Inc. report to reflect the Company’s S-1 Amendment on December 4, 2014.  Our company score did not change from a previous report published on November 21, 2014.  OnDeck plans to sell 10m shares and sees an offering price of $16-$18 per share.  OnDeck will list on the NYSE under the symbol “ONDK”.

Triton Research has published a 59-page report on OnDeck Capital Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

ONDECK Sets IPO Terms: 10m Shares at $16 – $18 per Share – Triton Research Score Under Review

OnDeck Capital Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock.  The company plans to sell 10m shares and sees an offering price of $16-$18 per share.  OnDeck will list on the NYSE under the symbol “ONDK”.

Triton Research has published a 59-page report on OnDeck Capital Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

CONNECTURE Score Revised to 6.53 – Triton Research Dossier Updated

Triton Research updated our recent Connecture Inc. report to reflect the Company’s S-1 Amendment on December 2, 2014.  Our company score increased to 6.53 from 6.29.  Connecture filed to sell 5.77m shares and sees an offering price of $12-$14 per share.  Connecture will list on the Nasdaq Exchange under the symbol “CNXR”.

Triton Research has published a 56-page report on Connecture Inc. containing product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

WORKIVA Score Revised to 6.07 – Triton Research Dossier Updated

Triton Research updated our recent Workiva Inc. report to reflect the Company’s S-1 Amendment on December 1, 2014.  Our company score increased to 6.07 from 5.98.  Workiva filed to sell 7.2m shares and sees an offering price of $13-$15 per share.  Workiva will list on the NYSE under the symbol “WK”.

Triton Research has published a 55-page report on Workiva Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

LENDING CLUB Score Revised to 7.60 – Triton Research Dossier Updated

Triton Research updated our recent Lending Club report to reflect the Company’s S-1 Amendment on December 1, 2014.  Our company score decreased to 7.60 from 8.05.  Lending Club filed to sell 57.7m shares and sees an offering price of $10-$12 per share.  Lending Club will list on the NYSE under the symbol “LC”.

Triton Research has published a 53-page report on Lending Club containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

CONNECTURE Sets IPO Terms: 5.77m Shares at $12-$14 per Share – Triton Research Score Under Review

Connecture Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock.  The company plans to sell 5.77m shares and sees an offering price of $12-$14 per share.  Connecture will list on the Nasdaq Exchange under the symbol “CNXR”.

Triton Research has published a 54-page report on Connecture containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

NEW RELIC Scored 7.31 – Triton Research Dossier Published

The Triton Research Dossier on New Relic, Inc. has been published.  According to the Dossier, New Relic offers a great product in a nascent market under a SaaS business model.  Customers love New Relic’s product and the company has seen substantial revenue growth (FY12-FY14 CAGR 133%).  The Company also benefits from a product-focused founding CEO and an impressive investor base and board.  However, New Relic’s SaaS business model is suboptimal and the company has experienced rising customer acquisition costs with uneven economies of scale.  New Relic would ideally comp to Tableau (TR Score 7.68), except that Tableau sells to a broader market and receives upfront payment.

Triton Research has published a 54-page report on New Relic containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Challenges await Workiva’s public entry

Maintaining Workiva’s fast growth while turning a profit won’t be simple, even after the multimillion-dollar infusion, said Rett Wallace, co-founder of New York investment research firm Triton Research.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Wallace said. “The problem they’re going to have is they have to either build products they don’t have to grow within their existing clients or expand into markets they don’t really serve.”

Wallace said his firm does not expect Workiva to turn a profit soon, citing models done in anticipation of the IPO. “Even in the optimistic case here, it doesn’t get you to profitability by the end of 2016,” he said.

Wallace said Workiva already has gained a lot of ground in its market and attracted high-profile customers. However, that can mean Workiva will have a more difficult time landing new clients in the future, Wallace said.

“That’s what happens when you have really good share in a market that might be getting smaller,” he said.

NEW RELIC Sets IPO Terms: 5m Shares at $18-$20 per Share – Triton Research Report Out Shortly

New Relic Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock.  The company plans to sell 5.0m shares and sees an offering price of $18-$20 per share.  New Relic plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol “NEWR”.

Triton Research will be out with a comprehensive Dossier later today.  The report will include a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

WORKIVA Sets IPO Terms: 7.2m Shares at $13-$15 per Share – Triton Research Score Under Review

Workiva Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock.  The company plans to sell 7.2m shares and sees an offering price of $13-$15 per share.  Workiva plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol “WK”.

Triton Research has published a 54-page report on Workiva Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

LENDING CLUB Sets IPO Terms 57.7m Shares at $10-$12 per Share – Triton Research Score Under Review

Lending Club filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock.  The company plans to sell 57.7m shares and sees an offering price of $10-$12 per share.  Lending Club plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol “LC”.

Triton Research has published a 53-page report on Lending Club containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Lending Club Boosts Size of Planned IPO

Lending Club has reportedly increased the size of its planned IPO to $650m as it prepares to launch investor meetings next week.  The peer-to-peer lending company initially aimed to sell ~500m worth of stock.  The FT claims that the company will likely set a valuation range that starts at $3.8bn – Lending Club’s value during its final private financing round earlier this year – and then adjust the pricing based on investor demand.  Lending Club filed to go public in August and said in October that it would trade on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “LC.” 

Triton Research has published a 53-page report on Lending Club containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Lending Club boosts size of planned IPO

OnDeck Capital Scored 7.21 – Triton Research Dossier Published

The Triton Research Dossier on OnDeck Capital, Inc. has been published.  According to the Dossier, OnDeck makes loans to small businesses using its online platform and proprietary credit scoring.  This market has historically been characterized by fragmented providers, shady practices and astonishingly high interest rates.  OnDeck has high growth rates, significant repeat business, and is able to charge high interest rates due to the nature of their SMB clients.  In addition, customer acquisition cost trends are positive.  However, unlike Lending Club and other P2P marketplaces, OnDeck  takes capital risk.  The Company’s high interest rates may create vulnerability to competition from lower-rate providers.  OnDeck also operates in a regulatory grey area and is potentially subject to regulation from numerous agencies and states.  OnDeck represents a better solution than traditional small business lending options, but is structurally a completely different animal than Lending Club and may face obstacles to scale.

Triton Research has published a 59-page report on OnDeck Capital, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

MediaMath and Turn Listed as Potential Yahoo Acquisition Targets

Two Triton Research IPO Watchlist companies – MediaMath and Turn – are reportedly being vetted by Yahoo as a potential acquisition targets.

Both companies operate in the fast-growing market for programmatic ad buys.  MediaMath acquired Rare Crowds last week and raised a $73.5m series C financing round in June.  Turn has raised a total of $135m following its $80m Series E funding in January.

MediaMath and Turn are members of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 102 companies organized by investment theme.

CONNECTURE Scored 6.29 – Triton Research Dossier Published

The Triton Research Dossier on Connecture, Inc. has been published.  According to the Dossier, Connecture operates in a large and growing market with few competitors, but the Company’s poor disclosure makes it impossible to understand its prospects. Connecture has large customer wins including a component of the Medicare platform, is growing fast, and has shown significant improvement in operating margins. But the Company suffers from high customer concentration and is still losing money. The lack of customer information disclosed should be a major concern for investors and prevents a full analysis of the Company – it remains unclear if Connecture can become profitable.

Triton Research has published a 54-page report on Connecture, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Lending Club Seeking A Buyer

Lending Club is reportedly looking for a buyer.  According to PE HUB, the company is pursuing a dual track process and Goldman Sachs (an underwriter on the IPO) is advising on the sale.  The peer-to-peer lending company filed to go public in August and said in October that it would trade on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “LC.”

Triton Research has published a 53-page report on Lending Club containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

BrightRoll Bought by Yahoo

BrightRoll, a cross-platform digital video advertising service, was acquired by Yahoo for $640mn in cash.  The deal is expected to close in Q1 2015.

BrightRoll is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 103 companies organized by investment theme.

IPO Filing – OnDeck Capital

OnDeck Capital, an alternative lender that uses new technology to make small business loans, just filed an S-1 for a $150m IPO.  The company plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol “ONDK.”

OnDeck is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 102 companies organized by investment theme.

IPO Filing – Hortonworks Inc.

Hortonworks Inc., a support and consulting services provider for the Apache Hadoop data platform, filed to raise $100m in an initial public offering. The Company operates primarily in the U.S. and has booked $42m in LTM Revenue with a 568% ’12-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current Hortonworks investors include Benchmark, Yahoo!, Index Ventures, Teradata, and Hewlett-Packard Company.  Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on December 12, 2014.

IPO Filing – Momo Inc.

Momo Inc., a Chinese social network for use on mobile devices, filed to raise $300m in an initial public offering. The Company operates in China and has booked $17,015m in LTM Revenue.

Current Momo investors include Gallant Future Holdings, Joyous Harvest Holdings, First Optimal Holdings, Alibaba, Matrix Partners China, Sequoia, and Rick Moon.  Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, and China Renaissance Securities Hong Kong have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on December 11, 2014.

IPO Filing – New Relic

New Relic, Inc., a software analytics company, filed to raise $100m in an initial public offering. The Company operates worldwide and has booked $85m in LTM Revenue with a 133% ’12-’14 Rev CAGR.

Current New Relic investors include Benchmark Capital Partners, Insight Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures, and Tenaya Capital .  Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on December 12, 2014.

Private Market Funding Continues To Increase

This was an active weekend for private market fundraising.  Four companies on our Triton Research IPO Watchlist are reportedly close to capital raises at a valuation of over $10 billion.  This extends the recent theme in tech of companies raising money privately instead of going public.

Uber is in talks with new and existing investors to raise at least $1bn in equity at up to a $25bn valuation.  This comes after Uber received $1.2bn in funding in June that valued the company at $17bn.

Flipkart Internet is close to raising a round of funding that values the company at more than $10bn.  This is Flipkart’s third financing this year, after it raised $1bn in July at a valuation of $7bn and raised $210m in May at a valuation of $3bn.  It is not clear how much Flipkart is seeking to raise or who the investors are, but some existing investors are said to be participating.

Xiaomi is raising $1.5bn at a valuation of between $40bn and $50bn.  This will be the company’s fifth fundraising exercise.  One of the investors is said to be DST Global.

Snapchat is close to a deal that would value the company at $10-12bn.  Potential investors include Yahoo, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers, and others.

The Triton Research IPO Watchlist is a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 102 companies organized by investment theme.

Lending Club Releases 10-Q: Triton Research Score Remains 8.05

LendingClub Corporation filed a 10-Q on November 5, 2014 with updated financials for the quarter ended September 30, 2014. The company’s update did not result in a change to Triton Research’s company score of 8.05.

Triton Research has published a 53-page report on Lending Club containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.

Workiva Scored 5.98 – Triton Research Dossier Published

The Triton Research Dossier on Workiva Inc. has been published.  According to the Dossier, Workiva has captured dominant market share with its SaaS solution focused on SEC filings. However, that market is unlikely to grow, expansion outside of the U.S. will be a major challenge, and even our Bull model shows no profit through 2016. Revenue per customer growth has stalled, customer acquisition cost has recently doubled and other operating cost efficiencies have plateaued. The deal only works at the right price – and for a limited time.

Triton Research has published a 54-page report on Workiva Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Roku Planning an IPO

Roku, a set top box maker, is reportedly planning a confidential IPO filing. The company is working with Bank of America and Citi on a deal that would generate proceeds to $150m.

Roku is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 102 companies organized by investment theme.

Yodle IPO Reportedly Delayed

Yodle Inc. is considering postponing its IPO to 2015 because of volatile market conditions.  The Company, which filed to go public on July 8, 2014, is reportedly now looking to raise private capital at a $500m valuation.

Triton Research has published a 52-page report on Yodle Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Hedge Funds Add to Venture-Capital Bounty

Maverick Capital Ltd., one of the oldest hedge-fund firms, plans to launch its first venture-capital fund on Jan. 1, according to investors, with hopes of raising $400 million to take stakes in young companies.

In pitching the fund at Maverick’s annual investor meeting last week, one investor said, founder Lee Ainslie III said the New York firm was seeing the best opportunities in many years for making early-stage investments in private companies.

Such deals aren’t the bread and butter of hedge funds, which typically bet on the moves of stocks and other publicly traded assets.

But Maverick, with roughly $9 billion under management, is among a growing number of Wall Street firms that are trying to get a piece of the lofty valuations being achieved by startups in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

IPO Filing – Connecture Inc.

Connecture Inc., a developer of software platforms for health-insurance distribution and consumer health-insurance shopping, filed to raise $86m in an initial public offering. The Company operates in the U.S. and has booked $74m in LTM Revenue with a 97% ’12-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current Connecture investors include Great Point Partners, Chrysalis Ventures, SSM Partners, LiveOak Equity Partners.  Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on November 21, 2014.

BrightRoll in Talks to be Bought by Yahoo

Yahoo is reportedly in talks to buy BrightRoll, a cross-platform digital video advertising service.  Reports suggest a that term sheet has been signed that values BrightRoll at $700 – $725m.

BrightRoll is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 99 companies organized by investment theme.  For more information about the Triton Research IPO Watchlist please contact Kaylan Tildsley at(212) 804-6151.

IPO Filing – Workiva, Inc.

Workiva, Inc., a developer of cloud-based enterprise document collaboration and analytics software, filed to raise $100m in an initial public offering. The Company operates primarily in the U.S. and has booked $106m in LTM Revenue with a 139% ’11-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current Workiva  investors include Bluestem Capital.  Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on November 20, 2014.

LENDING CLUB Announces Listing Details

LendingClub Corporation filed an amended S-1 announcing plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol “LC.”

Triton Research has published a 53-page report on Lending Club containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more. For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

IPO Market Cools as Sell Off Gains Momentum

Like the big indexes, stocks of recently public companies flirted with an overall loss for the year today.

They ended just higher, but their performance is still sharply lagging the last two years—and that could be a warning sign for IPOs to come.

Analysts say a number of factors are contributing to the slowdown. “The vacuum in new tech filings…may be related to market turbulence, a focus on biotech [IPOs] or Alibaba fatigue,” said Rett Wallace, CEO of Triton Research LLC, which provides research on companies going public.

The Big Mystery: What’s Big Data Really Worth?

What groceries you buy, what Facebook posts you “like” and how you use GPS in your car: Companies are building their entire businesses around the collection and sale of such data.

The problem is that no one really knows what all that information is worth. Data isn’t a physical asset like a factory or cash, and there aren’t any official guidelines for assessing its value.

As more companies traffic in information and use big-data analytic tools to find ways to generate revenue, the lack of standards for valuing data leaves a widening gap in our understanding of the modern business world.

Box, Inc. delaying IPO until January 2015

Box, Inc. is reportedly delaying its initial public offering until January 2015.  The company filed for an IPO in March but raised $150mn in July at a $2.4bn valuation.  This news comes after Box reached a deal to acquire MedXT, a cloud software company that specializes in medical imagery, on Thursday.

Triton Research has published a 64-page report on Box, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

More Big Venture-Backed Companies Shun IPOs, For Now

The market for initial public offerings is booming, and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. made the largest-ever stock-market debut last month amid much fanfare. But other highly valued private companies are deciding that rushing to go public isn’t worth the trouble.

ZAYO Score Revised to 6.69 – Triton Research Dossier Updated

Triton Research updated our recent Zayo Group Holdings report to reflect the Company’s S-1 Amendment on October 6, 2014.  Our score decreased to 6.69 from 7.05.  Zayo plans to sell 28.9m shares and sees an offering price of $21-$24 per share.  The company will list on the NYSE under the symbol “ZAYO”.

Triton Research has published a 71-page report on Zayo Group Holdings containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

HUBSPOT Revises IPO Terms: 5m Shares at $22-$24 per Share

Hubspot Inc. raised the proposed deal size for its upcoming IPO. The company now plans to offer 5m shares at a range of $22-$24.  Hubspot had previously filed a range of $19-$21 per share.  The company plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol “HUBS”.

Triton Research has published a 60-page report on Hubspot Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

ZAYO Sets IPO Terms: 28.9m Shares at $21-$24 per Share – Triton Research Score Under Review

Zayo Group Holdings filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock.  The company plans to sell 28.9m shares and sees an offering price of $21-$24 per share.  The company plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol “ZAYO”.

Triton Research has published a 71-page report on Zayo Group Holdings containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Wayfair raises IPO price

Wayfair last night said it would offer 11 million shares at $29 a share — higher than the $25 to $28 range it had set in regulatory filings — in a deal that will raise $319 million.

Wayfair is not making money, however. It lost $51.4 million in the first half of the year, after a 2013 loss of $15.5 million, primarily due to increased adver­tising spending. And those losses are expected to persist for a couple of years.

“This is the dark side,” said Rett Wallace, co-founder of Triton Research, a financial data and intelligence firm. “It’s not clear that they can ever be profitable.”

Box Inc. Delays IPO Until 2015

Box Inc. is reportedly delaying its initial public offering until 2015 due to volatile market conditions. The company filed for an IPO in March but raised $150m in July at a $2.4b valuation. At the time it was reported that Box still planned to go public in 2014, but that now appears to no longer be the case.

Triton Research has published a 64-page report on Box Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Good Technology Fundraising

Good Technology announced this afternoon that it has raised $80m from new investors.   According to CEO Christy Wyatt this funding does not change the company’s plan to go public.  Good Technology filed an S-1 for an initial public offering back on May 14, 2014.

 Triton Research has published a 67-page report on Good Technology Co. containing comparative analyses, bull vs. bear case scenarios, questions for management, historical capitalizations, product analysis, business model analysis, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Lending Club: Alibaba-Sized Opportunity

If you like Alibaba’s marketplace approach to Chinese consumer commerce, then you will love Lending Club’s marketplace approach to U.S. consumer lending.

OnDeck Files Confidential S-1

OnDeck Capital, an alternative lender that uses new technology to make small business loans, has reportedly filed a confidential S-1 for an IPO.  The document was submitted last month and names Morgan Stanley as the lead banker on the deal.

OnDeck Capital is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104-companies organized by investment theme.

HUBSPOT Score Revised to 7.18 – Triton Research Dossier Updated

Triton Research updated our recent HubSpot report to reflect the Company’s S-1 Amendment filed this morning.  Our Score increased to 7.18 from 7.10.  HubSpot plans to sell 5m shares and sees an offering price of $19 – $21 per share.  The Company plans to list on NYSE under the symbol “HUBS.”

Triton Research has published a 52-page report on HubSpot, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

HUBSPOT Sets IPO Terms: 5m Shares at $19-$21 per Share – Triton Research Score Under Review

HubSpot, Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock earlier this morning. The company plans to sell 5m shares and sees an offering price of $19-$21 per share.  The company plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol “HUBS”.

Triton Research has published a 60-page report on HubSpot, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Zayo Group Holdings Files Amended S-1

Zayo Group Holdings filed an amended S-1 with updated financials and metrics for the fiscal year ended on June 30, 2014.  The company also announced plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol “ZAYO”.

Triton Research has published a 71-page report on Zayo Group Holdings containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

HUBSPOT, Inc. Scored 7.1 – Triton Research Dossier Published

The Triton Research Dossier on HubSpot, Inc. has been published.  According to the Dossier, Hubspot, Inc. is another AdTech platform, similar to Marketo, that helps SMBs with online marketing.  The SaaS model is attractive, revenue has scaled to over $100m, and the company has built a large salesforce.  But competitive differentiation will remain a challenge in this crowded market and we do not expect to see a profit in the forecast periods of 2015 and 2016.

Triton Research has published a 60-page report on Hubspot, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

WAYFAIR Scored 6.13 – Triton Research Dossier Updated

Triton Research updated our recent Wayfair report to reflect the Company’s S-1 Amendment on September 19, 2014.  Our score increased from 6.13 from 5.95.  Wayfair plans to sell 11m shares and sees an offering price of $25 – $28 per share.  The company plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol “W”

Triton Research’s updated Wayfair report is 52 pages an contains a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Reuters Insider – Alibaba makes highly anticipated NYSE debut

Investors and analysts discuss the initial public offering of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which priced shares at the top of its expected price range.  Rett Wallace speaks on “Reuters Insider.”

WAYFAIR Sets IPO Terms: 11m Shares at $25-$28 per Share – Triton Research Score Under Review

Wayfair Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock. The company plans to sell 11m shares and sees an offering price of $25-$28 per share.  The company plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol “W”.

Triton Research published a 54-page report on Wayfair, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Alibaba to keep it simple for NYSE debut

Third Party Endorsement for Lending Club

There’s been an understandable hush since the feverously received confirmation of Lending Club’s IPO at the end of August.

But now the bespoke research provider Triton Research has weighed in on the Lending Club IPO. Triton specializes in providing data-driven insights into innovative and disruptive companies – a service tailored specifically to institutional investors. The researcher has conferred upon the Lending Club listing a rating of 8.06. For some perspective, the average rating doled out by Triton is 6.58, and in fact the Lending Club score is the second highest to be awarded by the company since it began rating IPO companies 18 months ago.

Alibaba prices shares at $68, set to be top US IPO

Rett Wallace, CEO and Co-Founder at Triton Research, discusses Alibaba’s decision to price its U.S. initial public offering for $68 per share – at the top of the expected range.

Alibaba IPO Gives Insiders Rare Chance to Sell Early

A swath of early investors in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will be able to sell more than $8 billion worth of shares on the day the Chinese e-commerce company goes public, an unusual arrangement that is influencing how bankers price the offering.

“This job is already hard, so this means it’s that much harder,” said Rett Wallace, chief executive of private-company research firm Triton Research LLC, referring to the effect of the unlocked shares on pricing decisions.

What Is Alibaba’s Growth Potential? eBay’s Path Offers A Glimpse

Alibaba’s disclosure doesn’t provide enough detail to model the company accurately. In order to understand the company’s growth potential, it helps to compare Alibaba to eBay.

Bloomberg Surveillance

Bigger Investors Have Advantage With IPOs: Wallace

In “This Matters Now,” Triton Research Co-founder Rett Wallace the IPO market and whether, or not, the game is rigged. He speaks on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

Alibaba’s Price Increase Was Very Tame: Wallace

Triton Research Co-founder Rett Wallace discusses Alibaba’s coming IPO and why it is a directional bet on China’s consumer economy. He speaks on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

Upcoming LendingClub IPO Scores High at Triton Research

Triton Research initiated research coverage on the upcoming IPO for LendingClub with a 8.06 rating, which is substantially higher than the firm’s average rating of 6.58.

“Lending Club shows the power of narrowly-focused online marketplaces,” Triton Research said. “In the same way the Uber’s marketplace functionality is designed specifically for auto transport and GrubHub’s is designed for food delivery, Lending Club has developed a comprehensive solution that allows parties that do not know each other to borrow and lend money safely and conveniently. Lending Club’s model offers attractive margin, scale and risk characteristics to the Company, addresses an enormous opportunity, and represents a viable threat to established bank and credit card incumbents. Lending Club operates in a regulatory grey area as it is not a bank or a broker-dealer, which can be a benefit and also a risk. The Company is the largest peer-to-peer lender in the U.S. by far. At 8.05 it is the 2nd highest overall score since Triton Research began scoring IPO companies 18 months ago.”

LENDING CLUB Scored 8.05 – Triton Research Dossier Published

The Triton Research Dossier on LendingClub Corp. has been published. According to the Dossier, Lending Club shows the power of narrowly-focused online marketplaces.  In the same way the Uber’s marketplace functionality is designed specifically for auto transport and GrubHub’s is designed for food delivery, Lending Club has developed a comprehensive solution that allows parties that do not know each other to borrow and lend money safely and conveniently.  Lending Club’s model offers attractive margin, scale and risk characteristics to the Company, addresses an enormous opportunity, and represents a viable threat to established bank and credit card incumbents.  Lending Club operates in a regulatory grey area as it is not a bank or a broker-dealer, which can be a benefit and also a risk.  The Company is the largest peer-to-peer lender in the U.S. by far.  At 8.05 it is the 2nd highest overall score since Triton Research began scoring IPO companies 18 months ago.

Triton Research has published a 53-page report on Lending Club containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Alibaba to close IPO order books early

Alibaba Scored 7.1 – Triton Research Dossier Published

Triton Research updated our May report on Alibaba Group Holding to reflect the Company’s S-1 Amendment on September 5, 2014.  Alibaba plans to sell ~320m ADS and sees an offering price of $60-$66 per share.  The company will list on the NYSE under the symbol “BABA”. 

Triton Research’s updated Alibaba report is 114 pages and contains comparative analyses, bull vs. bear case scenarios, questions for management, historical capitalizations, product analysis, business model analysis, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Ebates Bought By Rakuten For $1 Billion

Ebates, a US rebate site, is being bought by Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce firm, for $1 billon. Rakuten will retain 100 percent of Ebates’ outstanding voting stock when the deal completes.  San Francisco-based Ebates offers a website that offers customers a way to earn cash back when shopping online at over 2,600 stores.  With the acquisition, Rakuten now has a new entry point into the U.S.’s growing e-commerce market.

Ebates is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 104 companies organized by investment theme.  For more information about the Triton Research IPO Watchlist please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

ALIBABA Sets IPO Terms: 320mn ADS at $60-$66 per Share – Triton Research Score Under Review

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock.  The company plans to sell 320m ADS and sees an offering price of $60-$66 per share. The company plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol “BABA.”

Triton Research published a 115-page report on Alibaba on May 20, 2014 – this report will be updated to reflect the deal terms.  The Dossier contains a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

IPO Filing – Upland Software, Inc.

Upland Software, Inc., a cloud-based project management and collaboration software company, filed to raise $50m in an initial public offering. The Company operates in the U.S. and has booked $54.4m in LTM Revenue with a 81% ’11-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current Upland Software investors include ESW Capital, Austin Ventures, Activant Solutions. William Blair and Raymond James have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on October 6, 2014.

Wayfair, Inc. Scored 5.95 – Triton Research Dossier Published

The Triton Research Dossier on Wayfair, Inc. has been published. According to the Dossier, Wayfair has captured a leadership position in the online furniture/home goods vertical. The Company has solid founding management and has grown to scale in a very capital efficient way. Although Wayfair’s customer acquisition has been successful, the Company controls neither product manufacturing nor logistics and distribution, and is therefore less defensible than a vertically-integrated e-commerce platform. Investors will also be concerned about future profitability, as well as poor disclosure and a dual-class stock structure. Wayfair’s Triton Research Score of 5.95 is below average for tech IPOs scored by Triton Research generally, and zulily (7.38) in particular.

Triton Research has published a 54-page report on Wayfair containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more. For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Upcoming Wayfair (W) IPO Scores Low at Triton Research

Triton Research initiated research coverage on the upcoming IPO for Wayfair (NYSE: W) with a 5.95 rating, which is below average for tech IPOs scored by Triton Research generally, and zulily (7.38) in particular. The firm’s average IPO rating is 5.95.

“Although Wayfair’s customer acquisition has been successful, the Company controls neither product manufacturing nor logistics and distribution, and is therefore less defensible than a vertically-integrated e-commerce platform,” Triton stated. They added, “Investors will also be concerned about future profitability, as well as poor disclosure and a dual-class stock structure.”

IPO Filing – Lending Club Corp.

Lending Club Corp., an online credit marketplace, filed to raise $500m in an initial public offering. The Company operates in the U.S. and has booked $148m in LTM Revenue with a 180% ’11-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current Lending Club investors include Norwest Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, Foundation Capital, Morgenthaler Partners and Google. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on September 29, 2014.

Lending Club seeks to raise more than $500m in IPO

IPO Filing – Hubspot, Inc.

Hubspot, Inc., a marketing management, automation and analytics software company, filed to raise $100m in an initial public offering. The Company operates worldwide (customers in 70 countries) and has booked $94m in LTM Revenue with a 65% ’11-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current Hubspot investors include General Catalyst Partners, Matrix Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital and Charles River Ventures. Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on September 26, 2014.

Google Provides Heavy Competition for Box

Today Google announced that its business-focused storage and collaboration product Google Drive for Work is seeing 1,800 new customers per week. Google also stated the service achieved 99.985% availability for the year.  These metrics are impressive and should increase pressure on cloud storage competitors such as Box.  Importantly, this news comes after Box’s amended S-1 filing and Q115 financial update on July 7, 2014.

Triton Research has published a 64-page report on Box, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. Scored 7.05 – Triton Research Dossier Published

The Triton Research Dossier on Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. has been published. According to the Dossier, Zayo Group generates over $1b in revenue and exhibits impressive customer retention and per customer revenue growth. Management is solid and has used prior telecom experience to build the business in a relatively short amount of time. Zayo has been acquisitive (completed 30 acquisitions), so it will be difficult to estimate the real profitability of the company once its growth rate normalizes. Other issues for Zayo include its $2,970.7m in total debt (as of Mar. 31, 2014) and the possibility of issues arising in the overall telecom industry.

Triton Research has published a 71-page report on Zayo Group Holdings containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more. For pricing information please contact Kaylan Tildsley at (212) 804-6151.

Triton Research Launches Coverage of Upcoming IPO Zayo Group

Triton Research initiated coverage on the upcoming IPO for US Telecommunications infrastructure provider, Zayo Group, with a 7.05 rating, which is slightly above the firm’s average IPO rating of 6.56.

“Zayo Group generates over $1bn in revenue and exhibits impressive customer retention and per customer revenue growth,” Triton Research said in its report. They added, “Management is solid and has used prior telecom experience to build the business in a relatively short amount of time. Zayo has been acquisitive (completed 30 acquisitions), so it will be difficult to estimate the real profitability of the company once its growth rate normalizes. Other issues for Zayo include its $2,970.7mn in total debt (as of Mar. 31, 2014) and the possibility of issues arising in the overall telecom industry.”

IPO Filing – Wayfair, Inc.

Wayfair, Inc., an online retailer of furniture, décor, and home improvement goods (also a company on Triton Research’s IPO Watchlist), filed to raise $350m in an initial public offering. The Company operates globally and has booked $1,107m in LTM Revenue with a 33% ’11-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current Wayfair investors include Great Hill Partners, HarbourVest Partners, Battery Ventures, Spark Capital, and T. Rowe Price. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Allen & Co. have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on September 18, 2014.

Flurry Bought by Yahoo

Flurry, a San Francisco-based mobile ads and analytics company, was purchased by Yahoo on July 21, 2014.  The companies did not disclose financial details but reports have cited a purchase price of $200m.  This acquisition marks Yahoo’s boldest push yet into mobile advertising, a $32.7b market dominated by Google Inc. and Facebook Inc.

Flurry, which was founded in 2005, creates tools to help marketers determine which of their mobile ads work the best with iPhone and Android users. To date Flurry has raised $62.5m from investors, including First Round Capital, InterWest Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Borealis Ventures.

Flurry is a member of the Triton Research IPO Watchlist, a continuously updating database of companies we expect to either IPO or be acquired.  The current IPO Watchlist is comprised of 105 companies organized by the following investment themes: Big Data, Cloud, Publishing, Hardware, Local, Social, Mobile, and Commerce.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/articles/yahoo-to-pay-more-than-200-million-to-acquire-flurry-1405976766

Yodle Inc. Scored 6.78 – Triton Research Dossier Published

The Triton Research Dossier on Yodle, an online marketing software company, has been published.  According to the Dossier, Yodle is a better-than-average software company operating in a difficult space.  Management has been volatile and made some questionable decisions, but Yodle’s financials are impressive given its SaaS model – the Company has had positive free cash flow since 2011.  Additionally, Yodle’s client base is comprised of small businesses, which is an attractive client category with low penetration.  Yodle’s best public comp – Marketo – has traded well since its IPO.

Triton Research has published a 52-page report on Yodle, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  For pricing information, please contact Kaylan Tildsley at 212-804-6151.

Triton Research Launches Coverage on Upcoming IPO Yodle (YO)

Triton Research initiated coverage on the upcoming IPO for Yodle, Inc. (NYSE: YO) (NASDAQ: YO) with a 6.78 rating, which is slightly above the firm’s average IPO rating of 6.54.

“Yodle is a better-than-average software company operating in a difficult space,” Triton stated. They added, “Management has been volatile and made some questionable decisions, but Yodle’s financials are impressive given its SasS model – the Company has had positive free cash flow since 2011. Additionally, Yodle’s client base is comprised ofsmall businesses, which is an attractive client category with low penetration.”

Alibaba Deal Timing

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is reportedly waiting until after Labor Day to begin its IPO Roadshow.  Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter, is reporting that Alibaba will now wait until September.  This contradicts recent speculation that the deal would price on August 8, 2014.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-17/alibaba-waiting-until-after-labor-day-to-begin-ipo-roadshow.html

Triton Research published a 115-page report on Alibaba on May 20, 2014.  The Dossier contains a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.

TubeMogul Price Range Change

TubeMogul, Inc. revised its IPO price range lower to $7-$8 per share from $11-$13 per share today.  The company still plans to sell 6.25 million shares and list on the NASDAQ under the symbol “TUBE.”  The amended filing also includes $5m of insider buying from Trinity Ventures, bringing insider buying to 53% of the total offering.

Triton Research has published a 53-page report on TubeMogul, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.

Line Corp. Applies for IPO

Line Corp. – a company on Triton Research’s IPO Watchlist – applied for an initial public offering valued at nearly $10 billion.

Line, the developer of a popular Japanese messaging app, is owned by South Korea’s Naver Corp.  The company reportedly hired Nomura and Morgan Stanley to manage the IPO in Tokyo and is also considering listing in New York. Line reported revenue of $508 million, in 2013.

Box, Inc. Conference Appearance

Box, Inc. CEO Aaron Levie will be speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech Conference in Aspen today.  This public appearance indicates that the Company doesn’t consider SEC quiet period rules a factor for its IPO in registration and a Box IPO is not occurring anytime soon.

Conference Agenda: http://www.fortuneconferences.com/brainstorm-tech-2014/2014-agenda-overview/

Alibaba F-1/A Filing

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. filed an amended F-1 on July 11, 2014. While the Company did not disclose a price range or provide timing information about their impending IPO, Alibaba did provide additional details about its corporate legal structure, board of directors, its relationship with Alipay, and various investments.

Triton Research has published a 113-page report on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  Triton Research originally published the report on May 20, 2014.

Bloomberg Surveillance

Is Sun Valley All About the Guest List?

Triton Research Co-Founder and CEO Rett Wallace discusses who’s attending the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. They speak on “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

Nuveen’s Doll: Current Bull Market `Least Believed’

Robert Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management, talks about the U.S. economy, financial markets and corporate earnings. He speaks with Adam Johnson, Scarlet Fu and Brendan Greeley on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance.” Triton Research’s Rett Wallace also speaks.

Low Frequency Disclosure

If you think stock prices are irrational, Flash Boys proves why you’re right. And the craziness makes perfect sense.

TubeMogul Scored 5.83 – Triton Research Dossier Published

The updated Triton Research Dossier on TubeMogul,  a real-time video advertising platform, has been published. TubeMogul, Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock on July 7, 2014. The company plans to sell 6.25 million shares and sees an offering price of $11 to $13 per share.  The company plans to list on the NASDAQ under the symbol “TUBE.”

Triton Research has published a 53-page report on TubeMogul, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  Triton Research originally published the report on April 11^th, but has updated it to reflect TubeMogul’s recent SEC filing. 

Tech IPO Filing – Zayo Group Holdings

Zayo Group Holdings, a U.S. Telecommunications infrastructure provider (cell tower, fiber optics, ethernet, and dedicated wavelength connection hardware), filed to raise $100m in an initial public offering. The Company operates in the U.S. and Europe and has booked $1,088m in LTM Revenue with a 89% ’11-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current Zayo investors include Battery Ventures, Charlesbank Capital Partners, Columbia Capital, GTCR, M/C Partners, and Oak Investment Partners.  Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Goldman Sachs have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on August 4, 2014.

Tech IPO Filing – Yodle

Yodle, a marketing automation software developer, filed to raise $75m in an initial public offering. The Company operates in the U.S. and Canada and has booked $172m in LTM Revenue with a 36% ’11-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current Yodle investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and JAFCO Technology Partners .  Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on August 11, 2014.

Welcome to the Everything Boom, or Maybe the Everything Bubble

Welcome to the Everything Boom — and, quite possibly, the Everything Bubble. Around the world, nearly every asset class is expensive by historical standards. Stocks and bonds; emerging markets and advanced economies; urban office towers and Iowa farmland; you name it, and it is trading at prices that are high by historical standards relative to fundamentals. The inverse of that is relatively low returns for investors.

TubeMogul Sets IPO Terms: 6.25m Shares at $11 – $13 per Share

TubeMogul, Inc. filed an amended registration with the SEC for an IPO of its Common Stock.  The company initially filed an S-1 on March 26, 2014.  The company plans to sell 6.25 million shares and seeks an offering price of $11 to $13 per share.  The company plans to list on the NASDAQ under the symbol “TUBE.”

Tech IPO Filing – iDreamSky Technology

iDreamSky Technology, a Chinese mobile game publisher, filed to raise $115m in an initial public offering. The Company operates in China and has booked $64m in LTM Revenue with a 1172% ’12-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current iDreamSky investors include Tencent Holdings, LC Fund, and Redpoint Ventures.  Credit Suisse and J.P. Morgan have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on August 4, 2014.

Tech IPO Filing – Yodlee

Yodlee, a financial services app developer, filed to raise $75m in an initial public offering.  The American company operates globally and has booked $74.5m in LTM Revenue with a 13.5% ’11-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current Yodlee investors include Warburg Pincus, Bank of America, Institutional Venture Partners, ACI Worldwide Corp. and Accel Partners.  Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Bank of America, UBS and Pacific Crest have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on August 2, 2014.

Action camera-maker GoPro makes picture-perfect debut

Shares of GoPro Inc, a maker of cameras used by surfers, skydivers and other action junkies to record and post their exploits online, rose as much as 38 percent in their market debut.

“GoPro is a brand that defines a category, like Band-Aid or Uber, and is growing very fast. It helps that they are profitable,” said Rett Wallace, chief executive of Triton Research, which analyzes startups.

Triton Research Dossier Published – GoDaddy, Inc.

Triton Research initiated on GoDaddy, a subscription web service provider.  According to the Dossier, GoDaddy is the clear domain marketplace leader (21% of global domains), but recent competitive (Google) and internal (CEO removal) changes could impact its market positioning.  GoDaddy’s financials are complicated because it takes payment for services upfront – therefore the Company is growing and generates solid cash flow, but its net income is very negative.  Finally, the deal itself is complex given it is a PE-backed story following its LBO in 2011.

Triton Research has published a 59-page report on GoDaddy, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.  Please contact Triton Research for more information.

Tech IPO Filing – Cyber-Ark Software

Cyber-Ark Software, an enterprise security software company provider, filed to raise up to $100m in an initial public offering.  The Israel-based company operates globally and has booked $71m in LTM Revenue with a 22% ’11-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current Cyber-Ark investors include Jerusalem Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs, and Vertex Venture Capital.  J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Barclays have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on July 26, 2014.

GoDaddy Competitor

Google has begun testing a service for registering website domains.  This product should directly compete with GoDaddy and will likely have implications for the Company’s pending IPO.

Sources: https://domains.google.com/about//

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/23/5835560/google-launches-domain-registration-service

Triton Research will be publishing a comprehensive Dossier on GoDaddy by the end of this week.

Etsy makes its largest acquisition to date

Etsy, an online marketplace, acquired A Little Market, a French online marketplace for handmade items. This is Etsy’s sixth and largest acquisition to date. Etsy has received $97.3m in funding so far from Accel Partners, Union Square Ventures, and other investors.

Spotify conducting practice earnings calls

Spotify, the streaming music service, is reportedly conducting practice earnings calls. This is being viewed by investors as a sign that the Company is preparing for a potential IPO.

Box Fundraising

Box is reportedly exploring the possibility of raising $100m or more from private investors ahead of its planned initial public offering.  Sources say the Company is in the early stages of talks with private equity firm TPG.  TPG would be a new investor in Box.

Source: http://recode.net/2014/06/20/box-may-raise-100-million-or-more-before-ipo/

Triton Research has published a 66-page report on Box, Inc. containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.

InMobi in discussions with two new investors

InMobi, an Indian mobile advertising company, is reportedly in discussions with two new investors.  The Company is looking to raise up to $300m in an investment that would value the ad agency at $1.5-$2b.  InMobi last raised $200m from Japan’s SoftBank in 2011, when it was valued at around $1b.

Buzzfeed raising a $200mn financing round

Buzzfeed, the news and trend-tracking site known for its viral content, is reportedly raising a financing round of $200m. This would be the Company’s fifth equity round. Buzzfeed’s $19m round in 2013 was rumored to be raised at a $200m valuation.

Freshdesk raises $31m

Freshdesk, an online customer support platform, raised $31m in a Series D funding round led by existing investor Tiger Global. Existing investor Accel Partners and new investor Google Capital also participated. Freshdesk has now raised a total $44m across four different rounds

GoPro seeks to raise up to $427m in IPO

GoPro Sets IPO Terms: 17.8mn Shares at $21 – $24 per Share

UCWeb acquired by Alibaba

UCWeb, China’s leading mobile browser and mobile search engine, was acquired by Alibaba on June 10th for an undisclosed amount. Alibaba previously held a 66% stake in UCWeb and also participated in several fundraising rounds. This deal builds up Alibaba’s mobile strategy and makes it a more formidable competitor to Baidu and Tencent.

Triton’s Wallace Says IPO Market is ‘More Finicky’ (Audio)

Rett Wallace, co-founder of Triton Research, says investors in initial public offerings are “looking a little harder at these things.” Wallace talks with Bloomberg’s Tom Keene and Michael McKee on Bloomberg Radio’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.

Tech IPO Filing – GoDaddy

GoDaddy, a subscription web service provider, filed on June 9, 2014 to raise up to $100m in an initial public offering.  The Scottsdale, AZ-based company operates globally (87% of revenue from the US) and has booked $1,188m in LTM Revenue with an 8% ’11-’13 Rev CAGR.

Current GoDaddy investors include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Silver Lake, and Technology Crossover Ventures.  Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and Citigroup have been selected as lead underwriters for the offering.  Triton Research expects the deal to price on July 11, 2014.

Triton Research Dossier published – GoPro, Inc.

Contact Triton Research for details.

Rovio receives €25m

Rovio, the creator of Angry Birds, received a €25m facility from the European Investment Bank to boost development of its mobile gaming platform and other entertainment services. The Finnish Company has to date raised relatively little venture capital considering its size and trajectory ($42m).

Yext raises $50m

Yext, a content management system for retailers, banks and small businesses, raised $50m in Series F funding on June 4th. The round was led by Insight Venture Partners with participation from Marker, Institutional Venture Partners, and Sutter Hill Ventures. The round reportedly valued Yext at $525m.

MediaMath raises a $73.5m series C financing round

MediaMath, a marketing management platform provider, closed a $73.5m series C financing round, while also increasing its debt facility to $105m. The funding – which will be used to support new international offices and develop new product/features – was led by Spring Lake Equity Partners, with participation from new investor Akamai Technologies, and existing investors Safeguard Scientifics, Catalyst Investors, and Observatory Capital.

Uber raises $1.2b

Uber Technologies Inc. raised $1.2b in a new financing led by Fidelity Investments. The funding puts the Company at a pre-money valuation of ~$17b, up from $3.5b in a financing last year. Other investors in the new round include Wellington Management, Summit Partners, BlackRock Inc., Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and existing investors such as Google Ventures and Menlo Ventures.

AppDynamics Inc. raises $50m

AppDynamics Inc., whose software is used to monitor and manage complex software environments, raised $50m in venture debt in the form of a mezzanine capital and a revolving credit line on June 2nd. The round was led by Silicon Valley Bank and brings total capital raised by AppDynamics to $136.

MongoDB and Cloudera Inc. announce partnership

MongoDB (valuation $1.2b) and Cloudera Inc. (valuation $4.1b) announced a partnership to pool resources on May 30th. The companies are stepping up their Big Data efforts to take on Oracle and other competitors. Cloudera handles Big Data infrastructure while MongoDB focuses on Big Data applications.

Apple Paying Less Than $500 Million for Beats Music Streaming Service

Apple Inc. is paying slightly less than $500 million for the Beats Music streaming service, and more than $2.5 billion for Beats Electronics in its $3 billion deal, according to people familiar with the matter.

The valuation of the $10-a-month streaming service, which counts 250,000 paying subscribers, is generous based on its subscriber numbers. Spotify AB, which has 10 million subscribers world-wide, raised $250 million in November at a valuation of $4 billion, or $400 per subscriber. By that measure, Beats would be worth $100 million.

Calculating subscribers’ worth “is clearly not how they got there,” said Triton Research analyst Rett Wallace.

Marketers are all over the shop

TubeMogul update

The New York Times today published an interview with the CEO of TubeMogul, which would be a clear and obvious violation of SEC quiet period rules if TubeMogul is in fact pursuing an IPO.  We have not seen any filing updates, announcements, press releases or factual changes regarding TubeMogul or its S-1 filing.  This article therefore suggests that TubeMogul’s IPO is either off-track or not happening.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/business/corner-office-for-brett-wilson-of-tubemogul-its-all-in-the-follow-through.html?from=business&_r=0

Triton Research has published a 53-page report on TubeMogul containing a bottom-up financial model, product analysis, business model analysis, bull vs. bear case scenarios, comparative analyses, questions for management, historical capitalizations, historical valuations, and more.

Shares of China’s JD.com soar 20 percent in U.S. market debut

Shares of Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com soared almost 20 percent in their market debut as investors sought a piece of China’s booming online retail market, auguring well for Alibaba Group’s hotly anticipated float later this year.

“The momentum seems to be moving in the right direction for Alibaba,” said Rett Wallace, Chief Executive of Triton Research, which analyzes startup companies.

JD.com Prices Offering Above Expectations

Chinese online retailer JD.com Inc.’s initial public offering priced above expectations Wednesday, even as investors continue to nurse their wounds from a selloff in high-octane technology stocks.

“The fickle pricing environment just means additional scrutiny from investors. Depending on how good your company is, scrutiny can be bad or scrutiny can be good,” said Rett Wallace, co-founder Triton Research LLC, which analyzes startup companies.

Web Retailer JD.com’s I.P.O. Shows a Hunger for China

The biggest test yet of American investors’ appetite for a Chinese Internet company has passed with flying colors — and it doesn’t involve the Alibaba Group, that country’s e-commerce giant.

Instead, JD.com, an online retailer aspiring to become China’s answer to Amazon.com, exceeded expectations for its initial public offering on Wednesday, raising $1.78 billion.

“They’re basically directional bets on the Chinese consumer economy,” said Rett Wallace, the chief executive and co-founder of Triton Research.

JD.com raises $1.8bn in Nasdaq IPO

China’s JD.com Faces Tough Tech IPO Market

At a time when investors are still nursing wounds from the massive sell-off in young technology stocks, Chinese online retailer JD.com Inc. is readying a big initial public offering.

The IPO marks a test for the lead investment bankers on the deal, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS: in the current adverse environment, can they attract investors to a fast-growing but unprofitable online retailer?

JD.com runs China’s largest online direct sales business, according to a regulatory filing. Like U.S.-based Amazon.com. The company buys goods from manufacturers and distributors, stocks these products in warehouses and offers them for purchase via its website.

“In the US, the vertical retail model at this moment seems to have won over marketplaces—Amazon captured it,” Triton’s Mr. Wallace said. It’s unclear, though, whether that’s because “the model is intrinsically better, or is it because [Amazon CEO] Jeff Bezos out-executed all of the others?” he added.

Meet the Father of the Modern IPO

In 1984, Eric Dobkin was working for Goldman Sachs (GS), selling stocks to professional money managers, when he was handed an assignment: The bank ranked a lowly ninth in underwriting new stock offerings. Fix it.

Dobkin, then 41, spent a few sleepless nights mulling the problem. At the time, initial public offerings were handled by thousands of regional stockbrokers peddling the shares to individual investors. It finally hit him one morning in the shower, he says. If Goldman Sachs could sell large blocks of equities to institutional investors, it could surely sell more initial offerings to them as well. Thus was born Wall Street’s new model for raising money for corporations, earning Dobkin credit as the father of the modern-day IPO.

Technology stocks: Are they worth the gamble?

…Weibo, China’s micro-blogging answer to Twitter, should have confirmed what everyone suspected, that technology stocks were yesterday’s story. After all it hasn’t even managed to make a profit yet.

Instead it got itself successfully floated on the Nasdaq on Thursday and gave investors a one-day 19% gain in return for their confidence.

Certainly Weibo was priced cheaply – but Rett Wallace, chief executive of Triton Research, says there’s good evidence to support the optimism.

“One of the things to remember about Weibo is that it is really a joint venture between two very large Chinese conglomerates, Sina on one hand and Alibaba on the other. Investors in the American market have dealt in for a small piece of the financial ownership of that company.

“But the revenue base of this company is very healthy. It’s only been generating revenues since 2012. We think it’ll do more than $300m (£178m) in revenues this year and might even show a profit for the year.”

Weibo first day trades

Rett Wallace, co-founder and chief executive of Triton Research says: “I think people like the Chinese market, they like owning a company that is so well positioned in that market, and they like the analogies to familiar American companies like Amazon and Twitter.”

China’s Weibo raises a less than planned $285m in US IPO

Weibo debut: A pre-game show for Alibaba?

Rett Wallace, Co-Founder & CEO at Triton Research, says Weibo is a “very robust” company in terms of price despite market concerns about competition with Tencent.

Triton Research’s Wallace Questions Box Inc. IPO (Audio)

Rett Wallace, co-founder of Triton Research, says Box Inc. has “no model that shows profit.” Wallace talks with Bloomberg’s Tom Keene and Michael McKee on Bloomberg Radio’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

App Maker Buckles on 1st Day of Trading

Candy Crush Saga has been a smash hit, attracting tens of millions of players and generating spectacular profits for its developer, King Digital Entertainment.

But on Wednesday, when King had its debut on the New York Stock Exchange, investors feared that the company was at risk of becoming a one-hit wonder.

“Getting vertical takeoff is one thing,” said Rett Wallace, the chief executive of Triton Research, a firm that analyzes private companies. “But antigravity is harder.”

Investors Wonder: Has King Found an Heir to ‘Candy Crush’?

With the initial public offering of videogame maker King Digital Entertainment PLC set to price late Tuesday, the central question facing investors is whether the company can pull off another blockbuster like “Candy Crush Saga.”

“The standard term that people use to describe this kind of [business] is hit-driven,” said Rett Wallace, chief executive of private-company research and data provider Triton Research LLC.

“For all of the claims that Zynga made—and King makes the claim too—that they have a scalable, repeatable process, it just turns out that the alchemy of figuring out a thing that billions of people are going to use all the time is really hard,” Mr. Wallace said.

Box reveals losses as it seeks $250m in IPO

Castlight Health Surges in Debut

Shares of Castlight Health Inc. surged in their trading debut, after the health-plan software maker’s initial public offering raised more money than expected.

“It’s a real solution to a huge intractable problem that has defeated the best efforts of the self-anointed geniuses in Washington,” said Rett Wallace, co-founder of Triton Research LLC, which analyzes private tech, media and communications companies, before the IPO.

Coupons.com Shares Surge in Debut

On its first day of trading Friday, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company’s shares jumped 88% to $30, nearly doubling their $16 initial price.

Analysts will look to see how well it retains big-brand customers over time. “Consumer-packaged goods brands tend to spend their budgets on a campaign basis, rather than on a recurring basis,” said Rett Wallace, founder of Triton Research LLC, a private-company data firm. “This makes the business hard to win, and hard to keep.”

Companies Rush to List Shares

Initial Public Offerings Hit Pace Not Seen in Years

Companies are launching IPOs at the fastest pace in years to take advantage of booming share prices and investor demand while they last.

WhatsApp pushes tech deals total to $50bn

The information singularity is coming!

Whether you believe the collection and analysis of your personal data is trivial or intolerable, the age of Snowden has alerted us all to the coming of the information singularity, where near perfect portraits and detailed biographies of us all can be assembled if enough computer power is thrown at a big enough data set.

Tradeoffs in Cyber Security

In writing this essay, the breadth of tradeoffs in cyber security and that fundamental intellectual challenge in those tradeoffs caused me to choose to narrow my focus to one class of tradeoffs in cyber security rather than them all; looking at the state of the current world, I decided to focus on personal data and the government.

Why the Spike in February IPOs?

Triton Research Founder and CEO Rett Wallace discusses the markets and the spike in IPOs on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.

Go Public: Lessons From the Twitter IPO

Rett Wallace, founder & CEO at Triton Research, examines Twitter’s move to being a public company ahead of its first earnings report later today on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

Triton’s Wallace Says Twitter Needs More Products (Audio)

Rett Wallace, co-founder of Triton Research, says Twitter must sell more new products” to justify its share price.”

Ebullience Over 2013 I.P.O. Market Spills Into New Year

The next 12 months may not prove as rich for initial public offerings as the last year. But to Wall Street bankers, 2014 still promises an abundance of opportunity.

Cravings Still Strong for IPOs

On the heels of the busiest year for initial public offerings since the financial crisis, bankers and investors expect another bumper crop for deals in 2014.

But overall, prices were still more subdued than in other busy years, leaving few veteran observers willing to label the market a “bubble.”

“A cyclical high and a bubble are not the same thing,” said Rett Wallace of Triton Research LLC, which researches private companies going public.

We need to talk about TED

Science, philosophy and technology run on the model of American Idol – as embodied by TED talks – is a recipe for civilisational disaster

Venture Capital Showing No Signs of Tech Bubble

The question is, “Are we in a tech bubble?”

According to Rett Wallace of Triton Research, we are not.  He provided this chart and what it shows is actual venture capital investment and how they are a pretty long way off from the peak, which was in 2000.

The micro-cap IPO disappearing act

In 2000, the SEC mandated that stock prices be “decimalized,” or traded in fractions of a dollar as small as $0.01. Prior to 2000, stocks traded in 1/16 dollar, 1/8 dollar, or perhaps even 1/4 dollar increments, depending on volume. The trading desk of an investment bank makes its money being a market maker in a particular stock — and the profit it makes is dictated by the bid/ask spread between the selling and buying prices for the stock.

Decimalization reduced the profit a bank can make at the expense of the shareholder, which is good. But, how much can a bank make on a thinly traded stock with only a few million dollars traded each day if the bid/ask spread is a penny? The answer is, not enough to stay in business and certainly not enough to support research that would stoke further interest in the company.

So, companies have to get to a scale where the banks can profitably be market makers, and that seems to be about a minimum $75 million offering, which means a much bigger IPO. But with fewer, larger IPOs, what is the path to liquidity for VCs and angels?

More VCs bet on algorithms to mine for deals

It looks like analytics are becoming the crystal ball of venture capital.

An increasing number of firms are turning to algorithms to comb through tons of data to dig out the deals that will result in the big exits.

Bloomberg Surveillance

Tesla Valuation Is Temporarily Out of Step

Rett Wallace, founder & CEO at Triton Research, discusses market reaction to Tesla’s fourth-quarter results and the company’s sales prospects. He speaks on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.” – Watch Video

Twitter Is More Like Pandora Than Facebook

Rett Wallace, founder & CEO at Triton Research, discusses Twitter’s valuation and looks at what we may see in forward guidance from the ECB. – Watch Video

Obama’s Opportunity to Reshape the Federal Reserve

Neil Irwin, author of “The Alchemists” and Rett Wallace, founder & CEO at Triton Research, discuss President Barack Obama’s chance to reshape the make-up of the Federal Reserve. – Watch Video

Here’s Why Twitter Is More Pandora Than Facebook

Rett Wallace, founder & CEO at Triton Research and Neil Irwin, author of “The Alchemists,” examine Twitter’s IPO ahead of tonight share pricing and explain why the social media company is more like Pandora than Facebook. – Watch Video

Tech user numbers do not equal profit, warns SEC

Twitter’s more like Pandora than Facebook

While it’s often likened to another social media company, Twitter actually resembles a very different business, Triton Research CEO Rett Wallace said Wednesday.

“The core U.S. advertising business looks a lot more like Pandora than Facebook, both from a scale and from a functionality perspective.”

Twitter’s IPO: Feathering its nest

JUST a few days ahead of its planned initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, Twitter has raised the price range for its shares to $23 to $25, up from the original target of $17 to $20. The microblogging service and its bankers have hinted that strong demand for its stock justifies the increase. But the move, which could value the company at up to $13.6 billion, means that investors should be even more wary of taking a flutter on the firm’s stock.

At a valuation of $13.6 billion, Twitter would have a market capitalisation-to-trailing-12-month sales ratio of roughly 26, which is higher even than those of Facebook and LinkedIn when they went public. Yet Twitter has been coy about how exactly its advertising machine will be able to generate the billions of dollars of future revenues to justify such a lofty multiple. Rett Wallace of Triton Research, which analyses private companies, points out that Twitter has provided far less granular information about its sales activities in its regulatory filings than, say, LinkedIn did when it went public in 2011.

Hedge funds position for Twitter gains

Valuing Twitter vs. Facebook: Cheap or Expensive

Social media users can debate whether Facebook or Twitter is a better place to post a picture of their kid or a snarky comment.

Now, investors are having a similar conversation: Which platform offers them a better value for their money?

Measuring enterprise value against last-twelve-month sales puts Twitter at a discount of about 17% to Facebook, according to Rett Wallace, chief executive of Triton Research, a private-company research firm in New York.

Twitter cautious ahead of $1.6bn IPO

Twitter Says IPO May Value It at $11.1 Billion

Twitter Inc. on Thursday said it would price its shares at $17 to $20 in an initial public offering, valuing the messaging service at up to $11.1 billion, a number seen as conservative even for a company facing widening losses.

By starting out below that number, the company has left room to boost the range once executives hit the road and can gauge investor sentiment, said Rett Wallace, chief executive of Triton Research LLC, a private-company research firm in New York. “It gives them room to move up the price without offending investors’ sense of value,” he said.

Twitter Plays It Safe With IPO Pricing, Setting $20 Ceiling

The pundits can talk up Twitter all they like, but the social messenging service and its bankers are determined to avoid pulling a Facebook.

“They’ve obviously been out talking to the market and they want to make sure this deal clears,” says Triton Research CEO Rett Wallace. “They also might want to leave themselves room to raise the price over the course of the roadshow.”

The goal for Twitter, he says, is “Goldilocks pricing” — low enough to ensure strong demand but high enough that it doesn’t forfeit too much of the expected gains to investors.

Is Twitter’s Ad Business Soaring or Sagging? Unpacking the New Numbers

A revised prospectus filed by Twitter Tuesday offered a somewhat more up-to-date view into the social messaging company’s advertising business. But the additional data still leaves plenty of room for interpretation.

If it’s confusing, that’s because it’s meant to be, says Triton Research CEO Rett Wallace, whose firm specializes in private company data and intelligence.

The Big Hole in Twitter’s IPO Filing

Having spent a week with its 120,000-word IPO document, I’m left with a nagging feeling. The document is full of numbers and charts and graphs that show how the service is growing. But if you look hard enough—heck, if you look at all—you’ll see it has virtually no details about the most important aspects of its business.

If anything, the filing ascribes Twitter’s impressive ad-growth figures to the fact that more people are using the service. And that is “like a car dealer reporting that sales increased because he put more cars on the lot. The cars don’t sell themselves,” says Rett Wallace , CEO of Triton Research, a New York firm that analyzes private companies. “How can you project the performance of a company when you don’t know who is selling and who is buying?”

Companies Find a Faster IPO Turnaround Doesn’t Hurt

New rules on initial public offerings allow smaller companies to file their listing documents privately with regulators and then reveal them as little as three weeks before the company proposes a price for its shares.  “Even for professionals, unless you’re narrowly focused, three weeks is not a lot of time. If you’re a retail investor and you have a day job, God help you,” said Rett Wallace of Triton Research LLC.

With I.P.O.’s on the Rise, Analysts Get New Scrutiny

The market for initial public offerings has made a comeback, surging to levels not seen since before the financial crisis. At the same time, concerns have resurfaced over the role of Wall Street research analysts in these lucrative deals.

AOL bets on ad shift to online TV with takeover of adap.tv

Digital Coupon Company RetailMeNot to Test IPO Market

Coupon website operator RetailMeNot Inc. is about to discover whether investors find its initial public offering a bargain.

But the sustainability of its business is uncertain, as consumers can come and go as they please, said Rett Wallace, chief executive of Triton Research LLC, which provides data and research on private tech, media and communications companies.

When Brevity Is the Soul of Wall Street Research

The gloom over Wall Street in recent days has prompted lots of commentary from analysts trying to make sense of the markets.

But for one analyst, a single word did the trick on Monday: “Sell.”

IPOs are back, even the bad ones

The initial public offering on Friday of airline Internet provider Gogo may be a pretty good sign that the IPO market is about to hit some turbulence.

…Based on current growth, IPO research firm Triton Research estimates Gogo will max out its network by 2016.

Triton’s Wallace Explains Changing Research (Audio)

Rett Wallace, co-founder of Triton Research, says independent company research is more essential with an increase of initial public offerings. Wallace talks with Bloomberg’s Tom Keene and Michael McKee on Bloomberg Radio’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.” (Source: Bloomberg)

The Quantitative VC

To start competing for deals, VCs have to be prospecting people, companies and trends well before events like Demo Day [at Y Combinator]. And how are VCs trying to do this? Through complex data mining and pattern recognition.

Wall Street Turns to ‘Boot Camps’ to Train New Workers

When millions of dollars can be won or lost on one calculation, firms are finding it essential that their new hires can tell the difference between a pivot table and a header row. Enter specialized boot camps where — for fees that sometimes exceed $1,000 a day — would-be masters of the universe can perfect Excel modeling techniques and financial analysis.

Big Debut for Tableau Software

Tableau Software began trading under “DATA” at the NYSE today. Rett Wallace, Triton Research co-founder, shares his view on the stock.

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Tableau CEO Talks Up His Company’s Strong Public Debut A Year After Facebook’s IPO

Rett Wallace, CEO of independent financial data firm Triton Research, noted that Tableau timed its public debut perfectly and didn’t doubt the power of an IPO for its reputation.

ANDREESSEN: There Are No Exciting Tech IPOs Coming — Because We’ve Ruined The Public Markets

Don’t expect a game-changing tech initial public offering anytime soon. Private tech companies are steering clear of going public as long as they can manage, said Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” Monday.

Eventbrite Funding Slows Its IPO Chase

Eventbrite Inc., an event ticketing company, has raised $60 million from two investors, making it the latest example of a startup to raise significant private late-stage funding that puts off an initial public offering.

Venture Capital’s Rocky Road for Entrepreneurs

In my previous Deal Professor column, I wrote about a Delaware lawsuit involving a venture capital company, Bloodhound Technologies, and how it exposed venture capital’s dirty little secret: in a sale, the founders are often left with nothing even if the venture capitalists profit.

Marin Software next up for NYSE IPO debut

“I am pretty bullish about Marin, even though at first glance their financials look horrendous at first blush,” Tony Evans, who wrote a report about Marin for New York-based Triton Research, told me. “They are one of the first to go public and they are in the top three in a space that is set to get very big. They should be able to grow fast enough to offset the losses they have been posting until now.”

Data Mining for Investors

It’s still a business based on gut and intuition, says Mr. Patil, the former chief scientist for LinkedIn. But data-mining techniques, he says, can help venture capitalists be more efficient and effective.

New Money Ventures to Silicon Valley

“There’s an emergence of a new type of company that is private but should have been public, with scale and lots of revenue,” said Thomas Laffont, who leads Coatue’s new fund. “We want to identify these [companies] earlier and build relationships.”

Is Twitter Really Worth $10 Billion?

Walk through the numbers, as I did with the aid of a new research firm called Triton Research, and it’s hard not to see the ghosts of Google past.

The More Pandora Sells, the More It Loses

“They are in many ways a victim of their own success,” says Rett Wallace, cofounder of Triton Research LLC, which analyzes startup companies for investors.

Silicon Valley’s Stock Funk

Sliding shares of newly public Internet companies are depressing employees—and their finances—after years of long hours and high expectations.

Rank-and-file workers at four of the highest profile Internet companies that began selling shares in the past 16 months have collectively lost about $9 billion on paper since their initial public offerings, according to calculations by compensation researcher Equilar Inc. and The Wall Street Journal.

Marc Andressen: Unintended Consequences

MARC ANDREESSEN: …there’s this huge amount of retaliation against public companies in the form of Sarbanes-Oxley and RegFD and ISS and all these sort of bizarre governance things that have all added up to make it just be incredibly difficult to be public today.  So, the logical response has been many of the best new companies don’t want to go public.

Global IPO Market Keeps Shrinking

…the net result was a total of 201 deals worldwide in the second quarter [2012], half the 428 offerings seen during the same period in 2011… The outlook for global IPO issuance is uncertain at best, and grim at worst.

Facebook’s Early Buyers Burned, Too

Private markets have become increasingly important as the median age of companies backed by venture capital at their IPO rose to 8.3 years in 2011 from 4.3 years in 1999, according to the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters.

Seeking ‘Second’ Life After Facebook

With Facebook preparing for an IPO in May, it isn’t clear the secondary market can retain enough depth and breadth to deliver large returns to a growing number of investors.

For High Tech Companies, Going Public Sucks

When Facebook goes public this year, it will raise at least $5 billion, making it the biggest Internet IPO the world has ever seen. The day it debuts on the stock exchange, Facebook will be worth more than General Motors, the New York Times Company, and Sprint Nextel combined. The next morning, Mark Zuckerberg’s smiling face will appear on the front page of newspapers around the world.

But don’t be surprised if that smile looks like the forced grin of someone dragged to the altar. Truth be told, Zuckerberg is going public not because he wants to but because SEC rules have forced his hand. Once a company takes on more than 500 shareholders—a number that Facebook easily surpasses if you include all the investors and employees who have bought or received shares over the years—it must register its stock. That means shareholders can trade it in the OTC (over the counter) markets, out of the company’s control and without its consent or cooperation. No high-profile business wants its shares to be traded in that opaque purgatory of low valuations.

Tiger Global’s Coleman Gets Rich Off IPOs — Long Before You See Them

Coleman buys stocks in companies headed toward an initial public offering… and sells the stock at a huge profit to investors who can only buy in after the IPO. By trying to protect retail investors, in other words, the government has created a huge opportunity for hedge funds to make profits that would have flowed to ordinary investors if they’d been able to buy in earlier.

Silicon Valley tech companies struggle to describe themselves in comprehensible language

From unintelligible corporate mission statements and tech-job postings to incomprehensible billboards on Highway 101 that speak only to that small handful of geeks over in the slow lane, Silicon Valley is drowning in a linguistic riptide of seamless design functionality, end-to-end services and scalability truly without precedent.

Rebuilding the IPO Market

Never mind Facebook: Small firms hurt by IPO drought.

Don’t be fooled by Facebook’s dazzling $100 billion IPO plans: The 14-year drought for small IPOs is not about to magically disappear. Big-brand companies such as Facebook have the recognition to stoke demand for their IPOs, but most companies wallow in the quagmire of anonymity.

Michael Moritz On Klarna’s $155M Round: “This Is The Public Financing Of Twelve Years Ago”

“This is the public financing of twelve years ago,” Moritz tells me, “it is just done privately.” The buyers in these “pre-public investment rounds” are the same investors who would have previously bought IPOs, funds like General Atlantic, DST, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, Tiger and Wellington Capital.

Private Markets Offer Valuable Service but Little Disclosure

Information is the lifeblood of capital markets…The value of stocks is based on information, which is why securities laws are intended to ensure that all investors have at least minimum amounts of information. Private, closed markets like SharesPost and SecondMarket aid in the cause of market transparency, providing platforms to trade shares of companies that have yet to go public. At the the same time, the limited amount of information available to investors in these markets raises some questions.

Hedge-Fund Investors Scout Out Web Firms

Spurred by their appetite for technology companies and seeking higher returns, a growing number of hedge-fund managers have started to invest more in private Internet companies.