Cards on the Airtable, IPOs back with a Coupang and airlines prep for takeoff
Happy Friday!
This week, Anirban Sen and I scooped that Airtable, the U.S. cloud collaboration start-up whose backers include actor Ashton Kutcher and venture capital firm Benchmark, is in talks with investors to raise more than $200 million at a roughly $5 billion valuation.
Such a valuation would almost double the $2.6 billion the San Francisco-based company was worth in a funding round announced in September, underscoring the growth in its business during a period of widespread work-from-home during the pandemic.
Elsewhere, SoftBank Group Corp-backed Coupang was valued at around $109 billion in its New York Stock Exchange debut after South Korea’s largest e-commerce company raised around $4.6 billion in the biggest U.S. IPO so far this year. SoftBank racked up a roughly $33 billion gain on paper through the IPO.
Reuters Breakingviews on the listing: “Coupang has delivered a priceless gift to Masayoshi Son: a validation of his vision… Coupang has qualities synonymous with the technology companies targeted by the Japanese tycoon: fast growth, lofty valuation, and a hyped-up founder. At least its path to profit has been set by peers like Amazon.com.”
And finally, my colleague Tracy Rucinski wrote about how U.S. low-cost airlines Frontier and Sun Country plan to raise cash through IPOs as they prepare for a rebound in pandemic-hit travel. Budget carriers are expected to bounce back quicker than larger rivals from the pandemic thanks to their lower-cost structures and focus on domestic leisure travel.
Nearly 1.3 million people were screened at U.S. airports on Sunday, Transportation Security Administration data showed, the second-highest day in 2021 but down 40% from pre-COVID levels. The U.S. airline industry is also preparing for the arrival this year of newcomer Breeze Airways, a start-up by David Neeleman, the entrepreneur behind JetBlue Airways, Canada’s WestJet and Azul Brazilian Airlines.
With that, here are the main deal stories we put out this week:
Global blank-check deal volumes, or mergers through special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), have surged to a record $170 billion this year, already outstripping last year’s total of $157 billion, Refinitiv data showed.
Airtable was founded in 2012 and sells spreadsheet-like software in competition with the likes of Microsoft Excel. More than 200,000 companies use Airtable’s platform, including Netflix Inc, Expedia Group Inc and Shopify Inc, according to its website.
Apollo Global Management Inc said on Monday it will merge with Athene Holding Ltd in an $11 billion all-stock deal, bringing in-house an annuities provider that helped turn it into one of the world’s largest corporate credit investors.
U.S. timeshare operator Hilton Grand Vacations Inc said it would buy Diamond Resorts International Inc for about $1.4 billion, as the hospitality industry readies for a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic blow.
Shares of U.S. gaming company Roblox Corp closed up 54.4% in its New York Stock Exchange trading debut on Wednesday, valuing the company at $45.2 billion.
Like so many technology-flavoured companies that have gone public either in initial public offerings or via special-purpose acquisition companies, Roblox loses money on an accounting basis. But unusually, it boasts positive free cash flow – more than $400 million of it in 2020.
Data solutions firm Talend will go private in a $2.4 billion all-cash deal with private equity firm Thoma Bravo.
Southeast Asia’s biggest ride-hailing and food delivery firm Grab Holdings is in talks to go public through a merger with a U.S. special purpose acquisition company that could value it at nearly $40 billion, people familiar with the matter said.
Pluralsight Inc said Vista Equity Partners had increased its all-cash offer to buy the U.S. learning software company after investor groups said the initial bid was not sufficient and complained about how Pluralsight had run its sale process.
Bill Gates-backed crowd safety technology provider Evolv Technology will go public through a merger with a blank-check company in a deal that values the equity of the combined company at around $1.7 billion.
Thank you for reading this week’s edition! Feedback is always welcome. Please do pass on the newsletter with anyone you think might be interested.
Have a great weekend,
Josh
Joshua Franklin
M&A, IPO and corporate finance correspondent
Reuters News
See my stories at Reuters.com or follow me @ReutersJF