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)
2022 is set to be a big year for autonomous technology. After many new partnerships, acquisitions, and developments in 2021, all eyes will be on the self-driving sector to see what progress, or lack there-of, will be made this year. Soroush Salehian, CEO and co-founder of Aeva, gives a look at what's ahead for the industry.
The largest tech convention in the world kicks off this week. CES, organized by the Consumer Technology Association, will run from Wednesday Jan. 5 through Friday Jan. 7, featuring more than 2,000 exhibitors showing off their latest tech products in Las Vegas. Ian Sherr, editor at large at CNET, gives a first look at some of the biggest trends expected this year.
Verizon and AT&T have agreed to delay the launch of their 5G networks for two weeks following pressure from the Federal Aviation Administration, airline companies and even Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The aviation industry is concerned the 5G rollout could bring technical challenges or safety concerns on top of the current disruptions they're already dealing with from COVID and severe weather. Hugh Odom, founder and president of Vertical Consultants and former AT&T attorney, discusses how the Biden administration was able to come to this agreement with the wireless carriers.
Angelo Zino, Senior Industry Analyst & Vice President at CFRA Research, breaks down the tech giants' valuation milestone and discusses the areas of Apple's business that could see further growth.
General Motors rolled out the newest addition to its EV fleet with the all-electric Silverado pickup truck. Deborah Wahl, chief marketing officer at GM, joined Cheddar to talk about the latest EV offering and how it matches up to its past gas-powered versions. She said she expects demand to soar after the "first-level truck" sold out in just 12 minutes and talked about steps GM plans to take to regain its title as top U.S. auto seller after being dethroned by Toyota in 2021 with emphasis on the EV market. "I think this is an exciting new inflection point for the market overall, for [an] idea of an all-electric future, and certainly shows that we're extremely committed to the idea of everybody in an electric vehicle," said Wahl.
With the annual CES convention underway amid COVID, HP unveiled rolled out a number of new products virtually this year, including new gaming PCs and 4K display monitors. But as industries look toward a greener future, HP is working with the climate crisis in mind. James McCall, chief sustainability officer at HP, joined Cheddar's Kristen Scholer to discuss the company's climate goals, which includes reducing its carbon footprint to net-zero by 2040. He admitted that reaching the ambitious goal will be difficult because much of the company's emissions totals come from third parties. "A large part of our footprint is outside of HP's direct control. A lot of it comes either from our incoming supply chain, the materials, our manufacturing process, or about 30 to 40 percent of it comes from our consumer-use base," McCall told Cheddar.
Martin Fischer, president of technology supplier for cars and commercial vehicles ZF North America, joined Cheddar to discuss the company's solutions for next-generation mobility in autonomous vehicles and its plans to usher in the next phase of electric vehicles. He also talked about the rising demand for self-driving technology on a global scale. "Whereas we are really active also there for passenger cars and commercial vehicles, what we showcase at CES now virtually is our autonomous shuttles," he said. "So, what that means is we bring these vehicles to busy city centers and can take traffic levels down."
Steve Patton, EY Americas Mobility Sector Leader, joins Cheddar News to discuss what can be done to speed up the adoption of EVs, and how infrastructure can be scaled up to support this transition.
