It’s like Lord Voldemort himself is running around the stock exchanges these days sucking Unicorn blood to stay alive. The latest victim is Peloton Interactive Inc (NASDAQ:PTON), lovingly known as a screen on a bike from those on the short side (borrowed from the camera on a stick schtick that was the GoPro IPO). It can’t even hold its IPO price on the opening day, and was down about 8% from its IPO price in early trading. So long to another Unicorn.
When not providing wand material and life saving blood to Dark Lords, “unicorns,” as they’re known in the venture capital space, refer to startup companies who have valuations over $1 billion. Their goal from there, it seems these days, is to get to the public markets as soon as possible and cash in on the high valuations – selling stakes to every day investors. Problem is, this IPO business can be quite tricky for investors getting in after the company goes public. Sure, it’s worked splendidly for the likes of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and some others. But for every one of those, there’s a GoPro, WebVan, or Pets.com for those of you old enough to remember.
Here’s how the stars of the 2019 class have done thus far from their opening price on the first day of trading. And that’s not even including WeWork and their inability to even get to the IPO, after losing about $30 billion in pre-IPO value thanks in no small part to the musings of Scot Galloway.
Here’s the full list of Unicorn companies if you want to bet who ends up next on the ugly duckling list. And of course, here’s our infographic looking at some of the most high profile IPOs of the past 20 years:
