Roblox plans to list directly on NYSE in February

Roblox said Friday in an updated preview that they plan to go public through listing just next month, after the online game company delayed their debut in December.

Earlier this week, Roblox revealed that it raised $ 520 million in a private funding round ahead of direct listing. By taking this route to the public markets instead of a traditional IPO, Roblox is following Spotify, Slack, Palantir and Asana, going side by side with share sales and instead allowing interest and existing staff sell stock to new investors immediately.

The latest round of funding, at $ 45 a share, valued Roblox at $ 29.5 billion. In the updated filter, Roblox said an independent valuation report in December put the shares at $ 41.52 apiece. By raising some money before it went public, Roblox was able to set its balance and the ability to raise more capital through a high school show later this year.

Under direct listing, the NYSE will set a reference price for the stock the night before the start of Roblox, but no shares will be traded at that price. In the morning, market makers will match buyers and sellers to determine the opening price and the stock will be available to the wider market under the ticker symbol “RBLX.”

Roblox had been considering a more traditional IPO, but relinquished its plans last month after DoorDash and Airbnb popped up on consecutive days, leading to concerns that the company had risk leaving too much money on the table.

“Due to market volatility and the recent performance of other original subscribed public offerings, we have chosen to submit this forecast as a variation of the registration statement and follow direct listing to allow price. confirm public opening of Class A common stock. the NYSE by buying and selling orders collected by the NYSE from broker dealers, “Roblox said in the guide.

Since it does not do an IPO, Roblox no longer requires subscribers. The company said Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley would remain on as financial advisors, but JPMorgan, Bank of America and RBC Capital Markets were removed from the screening.

Roblox, which first released its service in 2006, is hitting the public market after a year of growing up as a child, forced to stay home at the time of the pandemic, they spent more time playing games.

Third-quarter revenue jumped 91% from a year earlier to $ 242.2 million. Daily active users almost doubled in the period to September 36.2 million and “hours engaged” more than doubled to 8.7 billion.

On the Roblox app, users create an avatar that can switch between millions of different games. They’re all free to play, but users buy virtual money called Robux for advanced features or to build the character.

The games are created by outside developers, who share the revenue with Roblox. The company said in the updated filter that there were about 3,800 developers in the first three quarters of 2020, which earned $ 215 million. That’s up from a year earlier, when 2,400 developers made $ 72.2 million.

While many game creators are making money into real world money, “some choose to reinvest their Robux to developer devices, promoting their experiences through the network. our in-house advertising, or costing the Robux like any other user, “the company said.

– Leslie Picker from CNBC contributed to this report.

COMMENT: Roblox files to IPO, and theater twist?