The History Book Club discussion

This is a thread to discuss Initial Public Offerings

This is a great study full of data on IPOs:


There have been 8,253 IPOs from 1980-2016!

The internet has made IPOs a lot more interesting. It of course created all sorts of opportunities for new companies, but it also helped people trade online. Now people can trade on their phones. It will be interesting to see new data on IPOs like Snap and Square, which have come out since Robinhood started offering its commission-free trading mobile app.

Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) IPO on April 3, 2018



Spotify (SPOT) was expected to open its IPO today at $135. It started at $169 before settling down to a $149.50 close. Here is a highlight from NPR's :

Spotify brings in almost $5 billion a year, but it pays out 79 percent of that to record labels, producers, songwriters and artists. David Pakman, a venture capitalist who has run several digital music companies including eMusic and Apple's Music Group, says there's just not enough left over to make a profit.

No kidding. That's a 21% gross profit margin. That margin is going to have to grow to make SPOT worth this $26.5 billion market valuation.