Box Makes Yet Another Attempt at IPO
Box Inc. the cloud-based storage and collaboration platform that despite little to no profitability over the last few years keeps attempting to go public. In a new Form S-1 filed with the SEC on Friday, it seems that Box is making yet another attempt for its initial public offering (IPO). Some reports suggest the company could float as early as the end of January, the official date has yet to be announced.
Box’s first attempt at filing for an IPO was back in March of last year and postponed a number of times since. However this was stopped, supposedly as a result of the downturn in tech stocks at the time. Now, more than 9 months later, Box has once again announced its share pricing which are between $11 and $13. At the high end, the IPO would raise as much as $187 million for the company and value Box at nearly $1.6 billion.
In an email correspondence with Techcrunch, Alan Pelz-Sharpe, the Research Director for Social Business at 451 Research took a look back at how far the startup has come. He is quoted as saying, “In 2009 Box was still a consumer-focused firm, since then they have brought in some true enterprise heavy-weights, pivoted the company 180 degrees and built a very credible and fast growing enterprise platform. To give credit where it is due, it’s something few firms have ever pulled off. Frankly the firm from 2009 to today is virtually unrecognizable, moving from a freemium to a premium sales model with relatively little friction, and taking the focus from cheap consumer storage to content-centric applications and a platform.”
However, despite the progress, the company is in fact not yet profitable. According to the amended Form S-1 Box posted revenues of $153.8 million in the first nine months of 2014, and showed a net loss of $121.5 million for the same period. Additionally, in the first nine months of 2013, the company had revenues of $84.5 million with a net loss of $125.2 million.
The stock will be in two classes, much like many other tech companies. Class B shares will get 10 votes per share and be convertible to Class A shares at any time on a one-for-one basis. Additionally, once the IPO has been launched, holders of Class B shares will have 98.8% control of the company’s voting power. Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box will hold 3.7% of the company’s voting power once the IPO is completed.
