Disrupting the IPO Process: Challenging the Banker-run Going-Public Model!
aswathdamodaran.substack.com
In the age of disruption, where young companies are challenging the status quo and upending conventional businesses, it was only a matter of time before they turned their attention to the process by which they are taken public. For decades, the standard operating procedure for a company going public has been to use a banker or a banking syndicate to market itself to public investors at a “guaranteed” price, in return for a sizeable fee. That process has developed warts along the way but it has remained surprisingly stable even as the investing world has changed. In the aftermath of some heavily publicized let downs in the IPO market this year, with the WeWork fiasco topping off the bad news, there is now an active and healthy discussion about how companies should make the transition to being public. Change may finally be coming to the going-public game and it is long overdue.
Disrupting the IPO Process: Challenging the Banker-run Going-Public Model!
Disrupting the IPO Process: Challenging the…
Disrupting the IPO Process: Challenging the Banker-run Going-Public Model!
In the age of disruption, where young companies are challenging the status quo and upending conventional businesses, it was only a matter of time before they turned their attention to the process by which they are taken public. For decades, the standard operating procedure for a company going public has been to use a banker or a banking syndicate to market itself to public investors at a “guaranteed” price, in return for a sizeable fee. That process has developed warts along the way but it has remained surprisingly stable even as the investing world has changed. In the aftermath of some heavily publicized let downs in the IPO market this year, with the WeWork fiasco topping off the bad news, there is now an active and healthy discussion about how companies should make the transition to being public. Change may finally be coming to the going-public game and it is long overdue.