Move over FANG! There may be another acronym on investors lips in the New Year.
Rob Cox, the global editor at Reuters Breakingviews, says Spotify, Lyft, Airbnb, and WeWork - aka SLAW - will be the next generation of disruptive companies to watch.
“We think they’re going to be a great way to play a whole bunch of different ways that we think about working, that’s WeWork; the way we think about playing, Spotify, and the way we get around the world and have fun, whether it’s Airbnb when we travel or of course Lyft,” he said.
These start-ups, all of which are candidates to tap the public markets in 2018, are shooting to change more than the way people consume products, though. Spotify, for example, is reportedly looking to bypass the traditional IPO process entirely, eschewing underwriters, and list its shares directly on the New York Stock Exchange.
Cox says that would be a big blow to bankers.
“They’re going to lose out because this deal is going to go straight to market,” he said. “They are not going to underwrite the IPO, so they’re not going to get the 7 percent [fee] on the deal.”
Lyft meanwhile, which just hired a new vice president of investor relations, would be the first time investors get an opportunity to buy into transportation as a service -- an opportunity, Cox says, is disruptive in its own right.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-tech-ipos-to-watch-in-2018).
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
