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  4. Affirm joins Roblox in delaying its planned 2020 IPO after monster gains from Airbnb, Doordash

Affirm joins Roblox in delaying its planned 2020 IPO after monster gains from Airbnb, Doordash

Matthew Fox   

Affirm joins Roblox in delaying its planned 2020 IPO after monster gains from Airbnb, Doordash
Stock Market2 min read
  • Affirm is delaying its planned IPO until next year, making it the second company in days to put their public debut on hold, according to The Wall Street Journal.
  • The move comes shortly after Roblox decided to postpone its planned 2020 IPO until next year to seek a higher price, given the strong investor demand for high-growth tech IPOs.
  • The recent IPO frenzy has been accelerated by the strong trading debuts of Airbnb and DoorDash earlier this week.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Affirm's planned 2020 IPO has been put on hold until next year, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The point-of-sale lender's decision to postpone its IPO comes shortly after Roblox decided to postpone its planned 2020 IPO until next year to seek a higher price, given the strong investor demand for high-growth tech IPOs.

Affirm planned to begin pitching its shares to potential investors this coming week, and was on track to receive a market valuation of as much as $10 billion, according to The Journal.

Read More: 2 investment chiefs at John Hancock's $692 billion investing arm say the post-COVID recovery might disappoint in 2021 - but investors can profit with these 3 strategies

Part of the reason Affirm delayed its offering was due to the high price spikes in recent offerings from Airbnb and DoorDash, as well as delays at the Securities Exchange Commission due to a surge in listing requests from private companies, the Journal reported.

Airbnb surged as much as 143% in its first day of trades on Thursday, while DoorDash closed higher by 86% in its first day of trading on Wednesday.

Now, Affirm's public debut won't come until January at the earliest, according to the report.

Affirm and Roblox are attempting to strike a delicate balance of not leaving any money on the table by pricing their IPO at too low of a price, yet also not pricing their shares too high, which might lead to a weak trading debut. Meanwhile, both companies are hoping (and betting on) that the IPO window remains open early next year.

A steep correction in the stock market can occur at any time, closing the IPO window, as that's not an ideal environment for a private company to go public.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink believes the recent IPO frenzy is "unsustainable" and could lead to "many accidents."

Read More: Cathie Wood is beating 99% of fund managers this year. The ARK CEO and her team share their outlooks for 2021 - including thoughts on Tesla's $5 billion stock sale, the Salesforce-Slack tie-up, and bitcoin's meteoric rise.

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