Yahoo Finance Slack reportedly selects NYSE for direct listing
Shares of Slack are reportedly heading to the New York Stock Exchange.
The workplace messaging provider has selected the NYSE for its direct listing, according to a Wall Street Journal report Monday citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
This makes Slack the latest in a slew of tech unicorns – or companies with private valuations north of $1 billion – to select the NYSE for a highly anticipated upcoming stock listing. Uber and Pinterest have also selected the NYSE for their initial public offerings, according to multiple reports. Lyft (LYFT), which saw shares begin trading Friday, selected the Nasdaq.
Slack declined to comment on the report.
In February, the San Francisco, California-based company announced that it had confidentially filed to go public and offer shares of its Class A common stock.
In a direct listing, a company avoids using underwriters and instead sells shares directly to the public. The process allows companies to avoid a lock-up period on selling shares, and also does not involve a pre-public capital raise for the company, as with a typical IPO.
Slack is still working with the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding listing logistics and is not expected to go public until at least June or July, the WSJ report added.
This comes following Spotify’s (SPOT) decision to debut on the NYSE via direct listing last year. Spotify’s market capitalization has now topped $25 billion, and shares have risen 6% since hitting the public markets last April.
Slack was last valued privately at more than $7 billion.
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Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @emily_mcck
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