Spotify Preps For Rumored IPO With Videos And New Services

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As rumors continue to circulate about whether or not Spotify, a commercial music streaming company, will launch an IPO later this year, more and more seem to believe that they will launch as they make large changes to their services.  Originally from Sweden, Spotify,  is available in 58 countries and is currently the leading provider of streaming music by subscription. It offers millions of songs in two versions: free with advertising, and an all-access paid version that in most countries costs about $10 a month. Spotify currently has around 60 million users around the world, 15 million of which pay. As for now Spotify hasn’t announced plans for an IPO and refuses to comment on the matter but most speculators think it is in our near future. This brokerdealer.com blog update profiles the new services Spotify is adding that could help boost the company for an IPO. This update is courtesy of The New York Post’s article, “Spotify launching video, news services ahead of IPO” by  Claire Atkinson, with an excerpt below.

Let’s go to the video, Spotify’s chief exec says.

The world’s biggest audio music streamer, with 60 million active users, said Wednesday it decided to broaden its offering, in part to capitalize on Americans’ long commutes, Spotify’s CEO told The Post in a private interview.

“A lot of Americans are sitting in their cars for a long time,” explained CEO Daniel Ek, who was in New York to announce at a press conference a slew of new business initiatives with the help of Tiësto, D’Angelo and Questlove.

“Tens of millions had connected to Spotify via Bluetooth but they still didn’t play music their entire drive,” said Ek, adding that heavy Spotify users wanted news, weather, traffic and podcasts, too, so he approached content providers about what they could offer.

The streaming music giant wants to expand its user base in advance of a much-hyped IPO, looking to take on the likes of Snapchat, YouTube and Facebook with a collection of video clips.

To continue reading about the changes in services for Spotify as they could soon launch an IPO, click here.

AppFolio Follows The Tech Trend And Files For IPO

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With two tech companies already set to launch their IPOs this week, another tech company has filed for an IPO, on Monday, May 18, 2015, with  the SEC.   AppFolio is most known for its web-based real estate property management system. That allows property managers to market and manage their portfolio. It includes accounting and property management functions with the ability to email work-orders, owner statements and resident communications. AppFolio are hoping to raise up to $100 million from this IPO. This IPO update is courtesy of Reuters Canada’s article, “Property management software maker AppFolio files for IPO“, with ab excerpt below.

AppFolio Inc, a maker of online property management software, filed with U.S. regulators on Monday for an initial public offering of common stock.

Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Pacific Crest Securities and William Blair are underwriters to the IPO.

The California-based company, whose investors include BV Capital and IGSB, provides software to small and medium-sized property managers and also offers legal software for small law firms under the brand “MyCase”.

AppFolio’s revenue rose 61 percent to $15.8 million for the quarter ended March 31. Net loss widened to $3.6 million from $1.2 million a year earlier.

To read more on the AppFolio IPO filing, click here.

 

5 IPOs To Launch This Week, Raising Close To $1 Billion

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5 IPOs set to launch this week

Brokerdealer.com blog update profiles the 5 IPOs that are suppose to launch this week. With 2 IPOs being tech IPOs, the total for this week’s launches could be close to $1 billion. This update is courtesy of Renaissance Capital with excerpts below, highlighting each of the IPOs.

To get in on the IPO action yourself, find a brokerdealer to work with you and your needs. 

Black Knight Financial Services (BKFS) is the leading provider of automated solutions for mortgage servicing and originations. Spun out of Fidelity National Finance (NYSE: FNF), Black Knight’s platform is used by the top 25 US mortgage servicers and 23 of the 25 largest US mortgage originators. The company’s dominant market position only encourages more customers to use its platform to mitigate mortgage risk.

Shopify (SHOP) is this week’s high-growth IPO. Backed by Bessemer, First Mark and Insight Venture Partners, the company has more than doubled revenue in each of the last 2 years, and sales rose 109% in the 1Q15. The SaaS provider targets 10 million small and medium businesses trying to manage online stores. 

Baozun (BZUN) is the leading provider of brand e-commerce solutions in China with a 20% market share. Backed by Alibaba (BABA), Goldman Sachs and others, it operates in the $4 billion outsourced Chinese e-commerce solutions industry, which is expected to grow at about a 55% CAGR through 2017. It has attracted blue-chip customers like Nike and Microsoft while rapidly growing transaction volumes on its platform. However, investors should be conscious of Baozun’s relatively high customer concentration current lack of positive free cash flow.

Press Ganey (PGND) operates in the nearly-$4 billion market for improving patient satisfaction at health care organizations. LBO’d by Vestar Capital Partners in 2008 for a reported $675 million, the company benefits from incentives under the Affordable Care Act that drive health care to become more consumer-focused. Press Ganey has established itself as the market leader in surveying patients, but also pitches its ability to leverage patient data into an analytics platform that recommends hospital best practices.

Community Healthcare Trust (CHCT) is a newly-formed REIT targeting an initial portfolio of 35 health care-focused properties, including non-urban clinics and surgery centers. Aside from its relatively high initial yield of 7.5%, investors may be betting that CEO Timothy Wallace will leverage his public company experience as former co-founder and EVP of Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE: HR).

To read Renaissance Capital’s complete coverage on this week’s IPO, click here

The Exciting Week For IPOs Could Help IPO ETFs

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The brokerdealer.com blog update has been profiling hot IPOs over the past few weeks as the US market has been on fire with IPOs after poor IPO performance at the beginning of the year. Some market experts believe that the week of IPOs that are still to come will help boost IPO ETFs like the Renaissance IPO ETF (IPO) and First Trust US IPO Index Fund (FPX). This brokerdealer.com blog update is courtesy of Zacks Equity Research article, “A Flurry of IPOs Might Lift IPO ETF“

The U.S. IPO space, which was subdued at the start of 2015, looks to be on fire this week. As per Renaissance Capital, as many as 14 companies are slated to go public this week. This makes the week starting from May 4 the ‘busiest week’ of 2015 so far, per 247wallst.com.

Investors should note that after a massive run last year, the IPO market cooled down considerably in the first quarter of 2015. Per Renaissance, 34 IPOs raised $5.4 billion in capital, making Q1 of 2015 the most inactive per IPO tally since 1Q of 2013. Also, the proceeds from

IPO were the least since 3Q of 2011. Only, the health care sector managed to tread water in the gloomy U.S. IPO market. 
Rising rate worries, a strong greenback and later a moderation in U.S. growth have probably raised concerns over the space. However, with the Fed repeatedly hinting at a delayed rate hike, the space has now bucked up.

Renaissance Capital’s IPO schedule indicated that the following companies are making a public market debut this week. These are Tallgrass Energy GP LP, Adaptimmune Therapeutics, International Market Centers, Commercial Credit, Bojangles, Collegium Pharmaceutical, aTyr Pharma, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals, Klox Technologies, MultiVir, Gelesis, Anterios, HTG Molecular Diagnostics and OpGen.

To get in on any of these IPOs that are about to launch find a brokerdealer here. 

To continue reading about upcoming IPOs and the effective they will have an IPO ETFs, click here.

Mindbody IPO Continues In Recent Fitness Trend

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On the tail of FitBit’s IPO filing last week, brokerdealer.com blog update profiles fitness software company, Mindbody, filing for its own IPO, on Monday, May 11, 2015. Mindbody is a cloud-based software provider in the health, wellness and beauty industries. Their software is most commonly used in fitness-centered businesses such as gyms and yoga studios. Mindbody’s initial primary focus was on business management software for wellness and fitness boutiques, when it was founded in 1998, and since then they have expanded to spas and beauty salons as well. The way the business works is businesses, such as gyms, spas, and yoga studios, pay a monthly fee to use the software. Mindbody currently serves more than 42,000 local business subscribers in 124 countries and territories.

The Mindbody IPO will be listed under the symbol MB, but has not selected an exchange yet. Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and UBS Investment Bank are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.

This update is courtesy of the Pacific Coast Business Times’ article by Elijah Brumback, “Mindbody targets global expansion with IPO“. An excerpt of the article is below.

Mindbody, best known for its business management software for health and wellness companies, is going public with a target of raising $100 million.

In a deal that’s been heralded as the first non-bank stock offering in decades for a company based in San Luis Obispo, Mindbody filed its offering statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 11.

An IPO has long been expected for the growing company, which recently debuted its new headquarters complex located on Tank Farm Road near the SLO airport. The company counts 42,000 local business subscribers in 124 countries, with revenues of $70 million in 2014.

Company CEO Rick Stollmeyer, who owns just over 11.2 percent of the firm, told the Business Times going public will help push the software firm’s global expansion.

“Our mission is to help wellness-based businesses be more successful,” he said. “This [IPO] enables us to do even more of that.”

After years of development, Mindbody rolled out a major corporate wellness platform last year and raised almost $100 million in venture capital to become San Luis Obispo County’s 11th-largest employer and fourth-largest private-sector job creator with about 900 employees on the Central Coast. The company’s headcount is expected to grow to roughly 1,100 in the next several years.

To continue reading about Mindbody’s IPO filing, click here.