One of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency companies, Bitmain Technologies, has just opened up its books for the first time in the run-up to pursuing an initial public offering (IPO), according to Michael Patterson for Bloomberg. Bitmain is the “dominant supplier of virtual currency mining machines”, with an estimated market share in crypto mining gear at nearly 75%.
The company released its first public financial statements in a Hong Kong regulatory filing, which confirmed plans for listing. It also brought to light some details, including that profit rose almost ninefold to US$742.7m in the first half of 2018, from a year earlier, and revenue rose to US$2.8bn in the same period, which is about ten times more on the year. However, Bitmain is yet to disclose a target valuation or say how much it wants to raise from its IPO.
Bitmain was founded in 2013 and, as the largest operator of bitcoin mining collectives (in which members combine their processing capacity and split the rewards), the company has a lot of influence. It’s this which worries the cryptocurrency community – a community that is founded on the decentralisation of power.
Patterson writes: “If the company proceeds with the IPO, it will represent a major test of whether investors view virtual currencies as a temporary fad or an innovation with staying power.”
The firm’s main product is a server-sized box, called the Antminer, filled with hundreds of high-powered chips known as application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips, which do the number crunching to verify virtual currency transactions. This works well for large mining operators with access to cheap electricity.
Bloomberg article
Dating going public Another exciting development in the world of IPOs is happening in the dating app sphere. Bumble, an app that requires the woman in the ‘match’ to initiate a conversation, is planning an IPO, according to Karl Utermohlen for
InvestorPlace. Utermohlen reports that this could be sometime within the next year and that the company is going public as “business has boomed outside the US”.
However, Bumble is currently in the midst of a legal battle with Match Group, the parent company of dating app Tinder. Bumble is filing a US$400m lawsuit against Match Group after claiming the group had illegally obtained Bumble’s trade secrets. This isn’t the two firms’ first legal tussle. Also this year, Match Group filed a suit against Bumble over patent infringement and misuse of intellectual property – the group claims Bumble plagiarised Tinder’s mutual “opt-in” premise and swipe action on the app.
Utermohlen reports that Bumble increased its revenue run rate to US$200m a year, and the app boasts 40 million users in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, and there are plans to launch the app in Germany, Mexico, South America and the rest of Latin America next year.
InvestorPlace article
Dell or no DellPossibly joining the likes of Bumble and Bitmain Technologies is Dell Technologies, which is currently reconsidering its original plan to not take the company public. According to Don Reisinger for
Fortune, which uses Reuters as its source, Dell’s executives are debating the IPO, having earlier this year decided against the move. Executives are reported to believe that the firm’s “improving financial picture, coupled with some pushback from hedge fund managers over its ‘tracking stock’ manoeuvre, create an IPO opportunity,” Reisinger writes.
Dell’s plans to IPO were halted earlier this year after it decided to pursue a US$21.7bn deal to acquire tracking stock (a specific type of share that centres on a single company unit rather than the entire business) held by hedge funds. Dell’s tracking stock is specific to its 81% stake in VMWare, a Dell subsidiary that provides cloud computing. However, an IPO would mean that shareholders would be forced to sell all tracking stock.
The IPO landscape is heating up with possibilities of two tech firms, Bitmain and Bumble, setting their sights on the public market. Whether Dell will join them yet is not known, but with its “improving financial picture”, it could be an attractive offer for its executives but could prove risky for its shareholders.
Fortune article
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