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- Palantir was expected to go public in 2019, but it looks like those plans have been pushed off to 2020, Bloomberg reported Friday.
- The secretive data analytics startup, whose clients include the US government, still faces a handful of hurdles before it can IPO.
- The company still needs to build out its board with independent directors, and it needs to hire more sales and finance employees before it will be ready to IPO, according to the report.
- Read more on the Business Insider homepage.
One of the most highly-anticipated IPOs of 2019 is turning into the most highly-anticipated IPO of 2020.
Palantir, the 15-year-old data startup run by CEO Alex Karp, is unlikely to go public in 2019 despite earlier comments from the company, according to Bloomberg.
The startup, which sells secretive data analytics tools to clients like the US government, grew its revenue by 40% last year up to around $1 billion, and has around $30 million in losses, according to the report, which cited anonymous sources.
Despite its growth, a number of on-going factors have slowed Palantir’s march towards an IPO, according to the report. Among them, Palantir has just one independent board member, and it’s lacking the staff on its sales and finance team that are needed to move forward with IPO preparation.
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Both the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange require that the majority of a company’s board is independent. At Palantir, three of the four board members are founders, according to Bloomberg.
Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its IPO plans.
It’s unclear how much the company will be worth when it eventually does hit the public markets. Palantir last valued itself at $11 billion as recently as late last year, though Morgan Stanley has pegged the company’s valuation as high as $41 billion, according to the report.
Palantir’s delay follows the mixed reception of other mega tech IPOs. Uber, which went public with a market cap of $75.5 billion, is still trading below its IPO price more than two weeks after its big debut. Its competitor Lyft has also struggled to keep up since getting a major pop on Day 1.
Yet, the IPOs keep coming. Next in line is Slack, which is expected to start trading in June through a direct listing. On Monday, Slack filed updated registration paperwork changing its IPO ticker from "SK" to "WORK."
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Source: Business Insider – bpeterson@businessinsider.com (Becky Peterson)