First Utah Company to Go Public This Year Soars in IPO
*By Michael Teich*
Pluralsight, a platform for online learning courses, was off to an auspicious start as a publicly traded company Thursday when the stock opened 33 percent above its IPO price on the Nasdaq.
Shares of the Utah-based tech company, which are trading under ticker symbol “PS”, opened for trading at $20 a share compared with the IPO price of $15. Pluralsight's CEO, Aaron Skonnard, told Cheddar that Wall Street was optimistic because investors realize that his company's cloud-based platform is well positioned to close a “massive skills gap” created by rapidly changing technology.
Pluralsight is the first company from Utah to go public in 2018. Skonnard said there are advantages to creating a technology company in Utah instead of Silicon Valley, including a thriving tech community in “Silicon Slopes” that attracts talent away from the San Francisco Bay area. The lower cost of living in Utah is also a “big home run” for employees.
The future of education is going to look a lot different in the years ahead, said Skonnard. Four-year college degrees are a lot less relevant than they were 20 years ago, and emerging technologies will cause the trend to continue. Pluralsight's focus on technology-based skills such as HTML and JavaScript put it in a position to provide courses that cater to the evolving demands by its corporate clients, which include AT&T and Adobe.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/utah-s-tech-unicorn-pluralsight-has-strong-nasdaq-debut).
Online retailer eBay Inc. will cut about 1,000 jobs, or an estimated 9% of its full-time workforce. The announcement follows similar moves by other tech companies that ramped up hiring during the pandemic while people spent more time and money online.
Tony Drake, CFP at Drake and Associates, LLC shares thoughts on whether the record gains in technology will broaden to other sectors, the risks of the Fed keeping interest rates higher for too long, and the health of the U.S. consumer.
The Federal Trade Commission ruled that Intuit engaged in deceptive practices by running ads claiming consumers could file their taxes for free using TurboTax — when many taxpayers did not qualify for such free offerings.
WWE’s weekly television show, “Raw,” will move to Netflix next year as part of a major streaming deal worth more than $5 billion. WWE, which is part of TKO Group Holdings Inc., said Tuesday that “Raw” will air on Netflix starting in January 2025.
Propublica national reporter Peter Elkind shares details on his investigation into how scammers stole over $1 billion using Walmart's gift cards and financial services, and how consumers can protect themselves.
Ed Siddell, CEO and Chief Investment Advisor at EGIS financial explains why election years tend to cause bull markets, the latest inflation data, and why he’s concerned about the ‘debt bubble.’
