After Uber and Lyft, Pinterest joins the tech IPO bandwagon

If things go as planned, you could soon be trading Pinterest stocks. The company, which offers a virtual pinboard for users to search and share images, has confidentially filed for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to The Wall Street Journal. Citing unidentified sources who are aware of the matter, the report said the California-based unicorn is hoping to value the company at around $12 billion in the public market.

JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have reportedly been hired to help the company with the public listing. The company officials have declined to comment on the same.

The social media firm, which competes with the likes of Facebook (FB), Twitter (TWTR) and Instagram, had raised $150 million two years back in its last round of funding. It is projected to have made revenues of around $700 million in 2018, almost 50% higher than what it made in 2017.

However, the company, which makes money through advertising, is yet to make profits. Pinterest was founded in 2010 by Paul Sciarra, Evan Sharp, and Ben Silbermann.

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The Wall Street was abuzz with speculations about Pinterest’s IPO when it appointed Francoise Brougher as its first COO in February last year. Notably, Brougher played a key role in the 2015-IPO of payments firm Square (SQ).

With this filing, Pinterest becomes the latest of a slew of noteworthy tech startups going public this year. In December last year, ride-hailing rivals Uber and Lyft made the confidential filing of their IPO paper works.  While Uber is estimated to have a valuation of $120 billion, Lyft is likely to be valued at around $30 billion.

Meanwhile, office messaging application Slack is reportedly contemplating on choosing direct listing over the traditional IPO, following the footsteps of Spotify (SPOT). Slack is worth about $7.1 billion.

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Two weeks back, food delivery company Postmates completed the paperwork relating to its own public listing. The company was last valued at $2 billion. Hospitality firm Airbnb is also likely to go public this year.

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