Sonos Public Listing Comes As Investor Appetite for Tech IPOs Grows
Smart speaker maker Sonos has officially filed to go public.
The company, which confidentially filed for an IPO in April, could raise as much as $100 million in the offering and could be valued at as much as $3 billion.
According to its regulatory filings, Sonos brought in revenue of over $1 billion in the 12 months ending in March. It posted a profit of $13.1 million in the first half of its fiscal year, slightly lower than the $15 million brought in the previous year. Over the last 12 months though, the company posted a loss of about $16 million.
Sonos, founded in 2002, pioneered the wireless speaker space, creating a product that allowed people to have multiple speakers playing different audio at the same time. Its original competitors were the likes of Bose and Bang & Olufsen.
After Apple, Google, and Amazon entered the field, the company scrambled to compete in the rapidly changing landscape by launching smart speakers powered by Amazon’s Alexa. The company’s products can also seamlessly integrate with external streaming systems and voice assistants, including Spotify and Apple Music.
Sonos is betting that its flexibility will be attractive to investors, said Wall Street Journal reporter Maureen Farrell.
“Part of the appeal, and this is obviously something that they really tout and will thoroughly be touting on the roadshow, is that they can partner with all of these companies,” said Farrell, who broke the story that the company was looking to go public in April.
“They obviously have huge competition, but I think what they’re betting on is that you get one of them in your house, or a couple, you really like it, and then they have this moat around them.”
Sonos would join more than a dozen tech companies that made a public debut this year in an attempt to capitalize on growing investor appetite for tech stocks, said Farrell.
“Last year we saw some pretty disastrous IPOs,” she said, alluding to Snap’s turbulent public offering. “It’s been such an incredibly different landscape this year."
"Tech IPOs are up more than 50 percent year-to-date," said Farrell.
"It just seems like investors right now are clamoring for anything tech-ish.”
Sonos plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker "SONO."
For the full segment, [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/sonos-likely-to-raise-more-than-100-million-in-ipo)
Soildus Labs, a market compliance and surveillance technology provider for crypto firms, has spearheaded the launch of the Crypto Market Integrity Coalition, a pledge committing to a safe and sensibly-regulated crypto industry. Kathy Kraninger, VP of Regulatory Affairs at Solidus Labs, discusses on Cheddar News' Closing Bell the biggest problems in the digital asset space that this new initiative plans to solve.
The global chip shortage continues to weigh on the automotive industry. For example, Ford says it is suspending or cutting production at eight of its factories in North America through next week due to the shortage. Balu Balakrishnan, President and CEO of Power Integrations, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he elaborates on why the chip shortage has dragged into 2022.
Peloton has weathered a seemingly never-ending storm the past few months: PR blunders, sinking customer demand, and in recent weeks, reported cost-cutting and potential layoffs. Now, several companies are said to be in the mix as potential buyers: Amazon, Netflix, Disney, and Apple. How likely is it that one of these companies pursues a deal — and how likely is it that it will be Apple who buys Peloton? Dan Ives, Managing Director of Equity Research at Wedbush Securities, joins Closing Bell to discuss his thoughts about Apple pursuing a Peloton takeover,
Astra aborted the launch for NASA ELaNa 41 Mission out of Cape Canaveral on Monday due to what was described as a minor issue, but the company's stock fell nearly 14 percent following the news. Jim Cantrell, CEO and co-founder of Phantom Space, which builds and launches spacecraft of its own, joined Cheddar to discuss the scrubbed mission. “The last thing you want is for this to go wrong, you're better to err on the side of safety expectations,” Cantrell explained, noting that the mission delay was a normal event.
The Biden Administration is set to revise federal rules to address potential security risks from foreign-owned apps, mainly Tiktok. This comes after the White House opted not to pursue a forced shutdown of the Chinese-owned video sharing platform. Under these new rules, federal oversight would be expanded to explicitly include apps that could be used by foreign adversaries to steal or otherwise obtain data. Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Craig Singleton, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
The metaverse platform Decentraland hosted its first wedding over the weekend. The union was overseen by Rose Law Group, at the firm's virtual property, hosting witnesses including 2,000 guests. The ceremony endured some technical glitches before being completed.
