這篇文章談論到了科創公司首次公開募股的情況。筆者稱雖然科創公司上市有很多泡沫也有失敗的案例,但投資者的熱情並為消散。同時這次疫情也讓科創公司獲利頗多。隨後筆者談論到許多科創公司不滿典型IPO的收益,轉而熱衷於&34;和&34;的做法。
想要閱讀往期內容,可以在公眾號右下角點擊&34;進入專欄。
Technology listings: Partying like it&39;s recent and upcoming listings rivals that of Ant Group. The payments affiliate of Alibaba, an online giant, wants to raise a record $30bn in China by October, which could value the firm at around $200bn. But America&34;unicorns&34;獨角獸&34;irrational exuberance&34;pop&39; rationality is certainly up for debate (see Buttonwood). But for many startups, the desire to go public is perfectly rational, for two reasons.
自本世紀初以來,每月都有數十家初創公司浮出水面,這種活躍的狀態並未停止。但是已經有一種&34;的氣息出現了,Lise Buyer發現了這一點,他從1990年代後期開始關注科技股,現在幫助初創公司在諮詢公司Class VGroup進行IPO。保險科技公司Duck Creek在8月14日上市時,股價上漲了近50%。 一周前上市的在線購物平臺BigCommerce的股價更是&34;了200%以上。
隨著美國大公司的標準普爾500指數創下歷史新高,以及新冠疫情的盛行,投資者的理性無疑值得懷疑。但是對於許多創業公司來說,上市的願望是完全理性的,這有兩個原因。
The first has to do with the financial markets themselves. Venture capitalists who had been pouring billions into unlisted firms began to cool on frothy startups before the pandemic, after a few unicorn listings disappointed (Lyft and Uber) or collapsed (WeWork). At the same time, rock-bottom interest rates are pushing public capital to seek returns. As a result, stockmarket investors are ready to accept high valuations, says Lauren Cummings of Morgan Stanley, an investment bank and a leading underwriter of IPOs. &34; agrees Brian Feinstein of Bessemer Venture Partners, a venture-capital (VC) firm.
首先與金融市場本身有關。在數十家獨角獸公司上市後出現令人失望的表現(Lyft和Uber)或倒閉(WeWork)之後,這讓曾向未上市公司注資數十億美金的風險資本家開始對泡沫狀的初創公司的熱情冷卻。同時,低利率正在推動公共資本尋求回報。投資銀行,首次公開招股的主要承銷商摩根史坦利的勞倫·卡明斯表示,股市投資者已準備好接受高估值。風險投資公司Bessemer Venture Partners的布萊恩·費恩斯坦表示:&34;
Startups are keen to slake it before it dissipates. Many firms are therefore dusting off listing plans that were put on hold in the wake of the ride-hailing duds and the WeWork snafu. Their case is bolstered because—and this is the second reason for startups&39;s Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft—have thrived as self-isolating consumers spend more time and money online, and firms splash out on cloud-computing services to enable remote working. On August 19th Apple briefly touched a market capitalisation of $2trn, the first American company to do so. Not-so-big tech, too, has benefited, including many companies that have recently gone public.
在這種熱情消散之前,新興企業都會熱衷於上市。因此,許多公司都在制定上市計劃,雖然這些計劃在WeWork突襲之後被擱置了。但是他們的計劃卻得到了支持,這是初創公司渴望上市的第二個原因,疫情對許多科技公司來說是一種福音。
隨著自我隔離型消費者在網上花費更多的時間和金錢,公司也紛紛投入雲計算服務以實現遠程工作,五個主要平臺(Alphabet的Google,Amazon,Apple,Facebook和Microsoft)蓬勃發展。8月19日,蘋果短暫觸及2千億美元的市值,這是第一家做到這樣的美國公司。不太大型的科技公司也從中受益,包括許多最近上市的公司。
The pandemic has highlighted and sped up a fundamental shift towards digital businesses, says Sarah Cannon of Index Ventures, a VC firm. The trend will last for decades, she predicts. Markets concur. The tech-heavy Renaissance IPO Index, which includes most listers of the past two years, is up by more than 40% since January (see chart 2). Zoom, whose videoconferencing app has become ubiquitous amid lockdowns, has seen its share price rise fourfold since floating in April 2019; it is worth $78bn. CrowdStrike, a cyber-security firm which listed in June last year, has quadrupled in value since March.
風險投資公司Index Ventures的薩拉·坎農說,這種流行病突出並加速了市場向數字業務的根本轉變。她預測,這種趨勢將持續數十年。科技公司的IPO指數(包括過去兩年中的大多數上市公司)自1月份以來已上漲了40%以上(見圖2)。Zoom的視頻會議應用程式在疫情封鎖期間變得無處不在,自2019年4月浮動以來,其股價已上漲了四倍;價值780億美元。去年6月上市的網絡安全公司CrowdStrike,自3月份以來市值增長了三倍。
One thing the latest boom has done is highlight how unhappy startups and VC firms have grown with the current process of going public. It is cumbersome, with reams of paperwork, and can take more than a year. It is also pricey—and seen as too cosy for Wall Street. Investment banks&39;s proceeds, not counting lawyers and other advisers. Startups and VC firms point to big first-day pops as evidence that offerings are underpriced to give banks&34;direct listing&34;直接上市&34;Not all technology companies are the same. They have different objectives.&34;並非所有的科技公司都是一樣的。 他們有不同的目標。"只要初創公司希望所有人最終都一樣賺錢,就需要華爾街來引導他們前進。
· The world this week:簡單梳理本周的時事
· Leaders:社論,對本周熱點事件進行評論
· Briefing:簡報,對一個特定熱點話題深度討論
· Letter:讀者來信,對往期文章的評論
· Sections:各大洲及中美英三國的本周熱點事件報導
· Business:商業新聞
· Finances and economics:財經新聞
· Science and technology:科技新聞
· Books and arts:文化書籍,書評和文化現象討論
· Economic and financial indicators:商業及財經指數
· Buttonwood:金融專欄
· Schumpeter:商業專欄
· Bartleby:職場專欄
· Bagehot:英國專欄
· Charlemagne:歐洲專欄
· Lexington:美國專欄
· Banyan:亞洲專欄