UPDATED 19:56 EDT / NOVEMBER 16 2020

APPS

Airbnb finally releases IPO details as it reports a quarterly profit

Airbnb Inc. today finally released details for its initial public offering a year after it first said that it was planning to go public in 2020 and three months after it confidentially filed for the listing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

With no surprise given the months of speculation, Airbnb reported that it had been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic but has seen a turnaround since earlier in the year.

“In early 2020, as COVID-19 disrupted travel across the world, Airbnb’s business declined significantly. But within two months, our business model started to rebound even with limited international travel, demonstrating its resilience,” Airbnb said. “People wanted to get out of their homes and yearned to travel, but they did not want to go far or to be in crowded hotel lobbies. Domestic travel quickly rebounded on Airbnb around the world as millions of guests took trips closer to home.”

The downturn was reflected in Airbnb’s financials. The company reported a net loss of $700 million on revenue of $2.5 billion in the first nine months of 2020, compared with a loss of $322 million on revenue of $3.7 billion over the same period in 2019.

But there was a pleasant surprise in the third quarter. Although revenue fell 19%, to $1.34 billion, Airbnb reported a profit of $219 million, thanks to cuts in spending and the post-COVID recovery.

That said, with parts of Europe going back into lockdown and a nationwide lockdown in the U.S. possible as a third wave rises, that recovery may not be sustainable for Airbnb, at least until a vaccine becomes widely available.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of actions to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic have materially adversely impacted and will continue to materially adversely impact our business, results of operations, and financial condition,” Airbnb noted as a risk factor in its prospectus.

Airbnb lists Booking Holdings Inc., Expedia Group Inc., Google LLC, TripAdvisor Inc., Trivago N.V., Craigslist and others among its competitors even though it offers mostly different products. There is some crossover: Booking Holdings, for instance, allows apartment owners to list on their platform through services such as Agoda Homes, but that’s only a small part of its business, not its core like Airbnb.

Airbnb did not say how many shares it was offering in its IPO nor the price range it was seeking for the shares. It did note that it was looking to raise $1 billion, but that could be a placeholder figure. The shares themselves will be offered on the Nasdaq under the ticket ABNB.

Airbnb has raised $6.4 billion, according to Crunchbase, from investors that include Andreessen Horowitz, Manhattan Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, TCV, Firstmark and Altimeter Capital.

Airbnb won’t be alone in going public between now and the end of year, since it’s likely to be joined by DoorDash Inc., Roblox, Wish and Affirm.

Image: Airbnb

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