Slack Bypasses Traditional IPO With $15.6 Billion Direct Listing
Slack lists its shares on the New York Stock Exchange through a direct offering rather than a traditional IPO, achieving a $15.6 billion valuation.
Slack Technologies lists its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol WORK, with an initial reference price of $26 per share that values the company at approximately $15.6 billion. The workplace collaboration platform, which serves 600,000 organizations, bypasses the traditional initial public offering route to go public.
Unlike a standard IPO that relies on Wall Street underwriters to sell shares and set an initial price, Slack utilizes a direct listing model previously pioneered by Spotify. This approach eliminates the need for underwriters to absorb unsold shares and skips the traditional pre-listing roadshow used to gauge institutional demand.
Instead of bankers determining the starting price, the stock market sets the value of Slack's shares directly once trading begins. While the NYSE establishes a baseline reference price of $26 to guide early trading, the actual opening price fluctuates based entirely on real-time supply and demand from public market investors.