Sonos listed on the Nasdaq (Thursday 2nd August) raising $208 million making it the 2nd-largest consumer discretionary IPO of 2018, the share prospectus initially valuing the company at $1.8 billion. The shares were offered at $15 and after an initial surge followed by profit taking the share price is fluctuating around $20 per share giving the company a market capitalisation (5th August 2018) of just under $1 bn.
Sonos files to go public
Despite having sales of nearly $1 bn in 2017 the company is still loss making and investors have been cautious given its reliance on its partners Spotify, Amazon and Apple, who could either remove their product or produce competing offerings.
Sonos redesigned the Nasdaq bell
The Nasdaq exchange hosts a Market Bell Ceremony twice a day where companies can ring the bell to celebrate important corporate milestones. Sonos partnered with Nasdaq to give the bell a new sound and full details of how they did it including a video and Soundcloud clips of the before and after can be found here.
Sonos joins an illustrious list of companies seeking to raise investment cash this year with Spotify going public and DEEZER gaining funds via private investors. China’s Tencent Music looks to be the next on the list having recently announced its intention to go public in the US.
