Airbnb files the IPO this week to pave the way to become one of the largest online platforms for real estate rental. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbnb is still on track for 2020 IPO following the Silicon Valley IPO boom of Zoom, Uber, Lyft, Pinterest, and Slack.
However, 2020 has been challenging for Airbnb’s IPO. The pandemic has severely impacted global travel, vacation, and hospitality businesses. Many residential buildings prohibit Airbnb short term rental to minimize the spread of Coronavirus.
Why is Airbnb going against all odds?
According to the Observer’s report, it is important for Airbnb to go public soon because the options for some early employees will expire before the end of this year. They do not want to miss the opportunity to cash out [1].
Airbnb plans to list its stock on the Nasdaq stock exchange with the ticker symbol of ABNB.
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Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley lead the listing. The home rental platform company expects to raise $1 billion from the initial public offering at an undisclosed target share price.
Airbnb claims to have a resilience business model as the company posted a $219 million profit on $1.34 billion revenue in the third quarter. After deep cost-cutting measures and layoff of 25% of the workforce, the profit was made to survive through the pandemic.
Based on Wall Street Journal’s report, the initial valuation for Airbnb was $31 billion in 2017 after several rounds of private funding. And recently, Airbnb is valued at $18 billion after the booking volume dropped by 80% [2].
The good news from Pfizer and Moderna about the vaccine may help Airbnb’s IPO, but the vaccine’s approval and delivery are still yet unknown.
Airbnb has revolutionized the rental market and allow ordinary people to rent their space. Airbnb has disrupted the hospitality industry, convenient travelers, and allows homeowners to rent unused space.