Uber and AirBnB Lead Speculation of IPOs in Quiet Week

​In a slow week for IPOs on U.S. exchanges, two tech unicorns (a term for billion-dollar valued private firms) dove into the initial public offering spotlight.

• Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Wednesday that the ride-sharing service will be IPO-ready by the second-half of 2019, despite not having a CFO. Mr. Khosrowshahi said he wants Uber to be the “Amazon of transportation.” Uber has already begun working towards that goal. In addition to the flagship ride-sharing service, the company has also unveiled spinoffs such as UberEATS, a food delivery service. Uber has also begun experimenting with autonomous driving, parcel delivery, and public transit.

 

• On the other side of the share-economy, AirBnB chief Brian Chesky said Thursday that they will also be ready for an IPO in 2019 but is unsure if they will take the leap. “We have investors who are really patient and I want to make sure it’s a benefit [to them] when we do,” said Mr. Chesky.

 

• The tech titans’ IPOs would make two of the largest VC-backed IPOs in U.S. history. Uber, worth about $62 billion, and AirBnB, worth about $31 billion, would certainly be outliers in the IPO game. According to Pitchbook, the median IPO size for VC-backed firms in 1Q 2018 was $110 million, which is considered large in the context of the last decade. Uber and AirBnB will be 10 and 11 years old, respectively, in 2019, putting them in the ripe age for an late-stage IPO. In the U.S., the median time to IPO is 8.2 years, per Pitchbook.