- Slack is preparing to go public in a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange on June 20 under the “WORK” symbol
- Upon going public, Slack is expecting to hit a potential listing value of $17 billion
- Slack is expecting a loss of $182 million to $192 million on revenue of $590 million to $600 million this year.
As enterprise collaboration software and online services company Slack is preparing to go public in a direct listing, some of its financial figures have been publicly reported. Slack is planning to go public on the New York Stock Exchange on June 20.
Slack is planning to trade its existing shares publicly without the issuance of new ones. The advantage of this set up is that Slack’s largest shareholders including Accel Partners and Andreessen Horowitz along with the company’s employees and investors will be able to sell their stock on the first day of trading rather than having to wait for a six-month lockup. In terms of assets, Slack has about $1.1 billion meaning it does not necessarily need to raise more capital from the IPO proceeds.
Recently, Slack told investors that it is predicting a loss of about $75 million to $77 million next quarter, including a $32 million one-time expense related to its direct listing, according to Bloomberg. This is more than double the loss during the same period last year. In terms of revenue, Slack is expecting $139 million to $141 million next quarter — up around 52% compared to a year ago.
For the three months ending April 30th, Slack said it saw a loss of $31.9 million on $134.8 million in revenue. This year, Slack is expecting to see a loss of $182 million to $192 million on revenue of $590 million to $600 million. At this growth rate, Slack could hit revenue of nearly $1 billion for the 2021 fiscal year.
Slack co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield describes Slack as a replacement for internal email. And it can integrate other software as a central place for exchanging files. For example, Slack recently announced a partnership with file storage service Dropbox.
“Slack is the kind of thing you don’t know you need but once you have it, you can’t live without it,” said Butterfield on an investor call via Bloomberg. “That’s great once organizations do have it, but it means we have to work hard to explain Slack to all the people who have never used it before.”
Prior to launching Slack, Butterfield is known for selling Gradfinder.com to Highwired right before the dot-com bust. And he was also the co-founder and CEO of photo social network Flickr (acquired by Yahoo in 2005). After Butterfield left Yahoo in July 2008, he traveled for about 8 months before launching Slack.
When Slack goes public, it is expected to be valued at $16 to $17 billion according to Bloomberg’s sources in a separate report. This valuation is based on the projected revenue and current growth rate. This valuation is a significant jump from the $7.1 billion valuation the company received in its last round of funding in August. But it is in line with Slack’s share sales on the private market.
Slack is planning to trade under the “WORK” stock symbol. And Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Allen & Co. are advising Slack on its listing.
