Tech sector in spotlight once again as Palantir plans mega IPO

It seems the IPO fever is taking the tech sector by storm, with every other Silicon Valley start-up seeking to go public. Initial reports indicate that Palantir Technologies, the latest to jump on the bandwagon, is looking to file for a high-value IPO next year.

Palantir stands out among its Silicon Valley peers for the unique service it offers – advanced data analytics service that is highly secretive in nature. Reports of the initiative come at a time when ride-hailing giants Lyft and Uber are busy preparing for their 2019 IPO.

Reports of the initiative come at a time when ride-hailing giants Lyft and Uber are busy preparing for their 2019 IPO

It is learned that the management of Palo Alto, California-based Palantir, which intends to enter the public realm by the second half of next year, has approached Morgan Stanley (MS) and Credit Suisse (CS) to take forward the process. Being a key partner to Palantir, by helping the company to raise significant private funds, Morgan Stanley will likely be its preferred choice for the IPO. With an estimated value of about $41 billion, nearly double the earlier valuation, Palantir is currently one of the richest tech start-ups.

Founded by Peter Thiel and his former colleague in 2004, Palantir secured its position in the highly competitive industry when it partnered with the Pentagon and the CIA for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The company became a popular brand after it helped the investigation agencies in nabbing Osama bin Laden, the notorious Al Qaeda leader.

Uber and Lyft plan IPOs next year but their valuations are poles apart

The tech firm that got listed in the American stock market most recently is open source search engine Elastic, which had a blockbuster debut on the New York Stock Exchange in the first week of this month.

Recently, Amazon (AMZN) boss Jeff Bezos got a strange request from his employees – to remove Palantir from the e-commerce giant’s cloud services platform Amazon Web Services. They raised concerns over having Palantir on AWS, while selling the highly sensitive facial recognition software Rekognition on the platform. Palantir has been widely criticized for allegedly using its data-mining prowess for unethical practices such as spying.

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