They were hailed as Silicon Valley’s answer to the traditional Wall Street IPO. A way for founders of hot tech startups to sidestep the hefty fees and the millions of dollars potentially left on the table when bankers took them public.
But now, some are wondering whether direct listings can live up to the hype, Bloomberg reports.
A string of high-profile direct listings, including Squarespace and ZipRecruiter flopped recently, but Coinbase Global was particularly notable. Since going public in April with plenty of fanfare, the cryptocurrency exchange has slumped, even dropping below its reference price, a level skeptics have called an artificially low bar to pass. Squarespace breached its reference price its debut session, the first direct listing to do so. A muted start for ZipRecruiter stood out from a series of pops by traditional IPOs. Read more.
