Pinterest is also joining a stampede of high-profile start-up looking for a debut in the public stock market this year as it has confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources.
The social media company, which provides virtual pin boards through its website along with an app allowing people to save their images and links, had filed its IPO-related paperwork with Securities and Exchange Commission at start of this month, the people said.
In June 2016, company was valued at $12.3 billion when it went through a private funding round and now for the IPO, Pinterest is hoping to be valued at $12 billion, WSJ said.
Ben Silbermann, Pinterest’s CEO, in last fall had declined of having any intentions or considerations for going to be public, but reports in December unveiled that the company had already begun search for banker ahead of an IPO, an now as the WSJ reported that JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs would be leading underwriters to the company for its stock offering plans.
Pinterest was founded in 2010 by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp, and had saw early take off of its growth largely for a high acceptance rate among Midwestern women which came to be slowing down in recent years.
But, unlike the other Silicon Valley companies which use typical activities to surge the number in the short term, Pinterest always embraced a decent approach toward the growth tactics, to which the chief executive Silbermann called “quality growth”, told New York Times last year that it is healthier to scale up a company at its natural growth rate.
Many other companies including Uber, Slack and Lyft are also planning IPOs this year, and reports are there that some of these may opt for a direct listing, but Pinterest will be pursuing a traditional IPO, reported one of people familiar with the situation.
