Updated with Google I/O and other cancellations:

Airbnb Inc.’s initial public offering may be the latest victim of the coronavirus amid reports that the company is considering pushing back its public debut, possibly into 2021.

The company would logically be hard-hit by the spread of the virus given the massive downturn in the travel industry, one suggested to be as bad as if not worse than post-9/11. People not traveling means people not using Airbnb to book accommodations.

“You want to come in with your best foot forward in a public listing – and this virus is hitting Airbnb hard,” David Hsu, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School, told Bloomberg.

The news that Airbnb may delay its IPO comes as the tech industry is hit on multiple fronts as the virus, which started in Hubei province in China, has quickly gone global.

Adding to the list of tech conferences canceled, most recently the Game Developers Conference scheduled to begin in San Francisco on March 16, is the Google Cloud Next Conference, the Microsoft MVP Summit and the Adobe Summit.

Google Cloud Next ’20 was scheduled to for April 6-8 in San Francisco. Today Google LLC said that because of coronavirus concerns, the conference would now be digital-only. “The health and wellbeing of Google Cloud customers, partners, employees and the overall community is our top priority,” Google said. “Due to the growing concern around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in alignment with the best practices laid out by the CDC, WHO and other relevant entities, Google Cloud has decided to reimagine Google Cloud Next ’20, which will still take place from April 6-8 [as] a free, global, digital-first, multi-day event.”

Updated: On Tuesday, Google also said it’s canceling at least the physical portion of its annual Google I/O developer conference near its Mountain View, California headquarters.

In another development late Monday, Twitter told its employees to work from home if they can.

Microsoft Corp.’s MVP Summit was scheduled to be held in March 16-19 in Seattle. The ubiquitous Windows operating system maker followed in the footsteps of Google and switched the conference for the same reason. Microsoft’s Build Conference, scheduled for May 19-21 in Seattle remains in question with Microsoft not yet canceling it.

Joining the ever-increasing list was the Nvidia Corp.’s GPU Technology Conference that was scheduled for March 22-26 in San Jose. Like both Google’s and Microsoft’s conferences, the conference is now an online-only event. Same with Domopalooza, a Domo event schedule to Salt Lake City, Utah, on March 18-19 and the F5 Agility 2020 conference originally scheduled for March 16-19 in Orlando, Florida.

Not least, the long-running South by Southwest conference in Austin today lost the participation of Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. — which cancelled its own F8 developer conference last week.

Supply chain issues

Conference cancellations may be the least of tech companies worries. Supply chain issues, originally in mainland China, are now spreading to South Korea.

Apple Inc., which was among the first major tech companies to warn of supply chain issues, is facing a new crisis after a major LG Innotek factory in South Korea shut because of an employee being diagnosed with coronavirus. The factory supplies camera modules for Apple’s iPhones including the forthcoming iPhone 12.

Most Foxconn factories in mainland China have come back online, though with reduced capacity because some workers have been unable to return thanks to travel restrictions in the Middle Kingdom. But having the supply of camera modules cut off is arguably more serious yet. The LG Innotek factory is officially only closed on Monday but if more employees are found to have the virus, the shutdown may be far longer again.

On a day that markets rallied after the coronavirus crash last week — the Dow Jones having its highest single-day point increase in history — Apple stock rose 9.3%, to $298.82.

Photo: Robert Hof/SiliconANGLE