Recent highly publicized flops by supposedly disruptive companies could be painting an unpleasant picture ahead for innovation.
It either could be a temporary blip ahead of some industry shake-outs, signs that deeper distress is ahead as investors demand more than flavor-of-the-week innovation, or simply the market engaging in healthy price discovery after a period of overexuberance on unicorn companies.
"When it comes to 'platform' companies, venture capital has done a generally terrible job building these businesses into viable companies," Colas wrote. "WeWork, Uber and Lyft raised a combined $43 billion from VCs. Yet for all that capital, none of these companies developed a business model that could reliably generate profits or even show meaningful progress to that goal without a deus ex machina innovation like self-driving cars.
Former Nasdaq CEO Bob Greifeld said the IPO market at least shouldn't be written off too quickly, despite this year's difficulties. Still, he said private companies with disruptive technologies looking to come to market should take heed of recent developments.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Peloton skids in debut, but two recent IPOs are setting up for gainsThe IPO market sees another disappointing debut as Peloton skids in its first day of trading. Two recent IPOs could be about to pop, though, says Miller Tabak's Matt Maley.
Read more »
Investors push back on IPOs with high valuations, murky path to profitabilitySky-high valuations on money-losing companies are souring the market for initial public stock offerings.
Read more »
Media Company Looking For Ways To Get Rid Of Veteran 24-Year-Old EmployeeNEW YORK—Noting that he has been with them “forever” and is taking good money away from younger, hungrier colleagues, executives at WebTrender Media have been quietly exploring options for getting rid of 24-year-old veteran employee Jason Rugg, sources within the company confirmed today. “Jason has had valuable moments for this company over the course of his long, 18-month career with us, but at this point he’s definitely overstayed his welcome,” WebTrender CEO Ben Parisi said of the website’s Senior News Editor, adding that Rugg currently earns the highest salary of his department at $33,000 per year and predates the majority of his coworkers by months. “Sure, he was a great content aggregator once, but the reality is that the world has changed since Jason started out here at 22 years old, and it just doesn’t make sense to keep dead weight around anymore. I mean, the guy’s a dinosaur. The last person in editorial who even remembers Jason was Heidi, and she’s from the old guard hired back in 2013.” At press time, company executives had reportedly scrapped their course of action after discovering the veteran employee was technically just an intern.
Read more »
Halima Aden on Yeezy Season 7 and Posing for Sports Illustrated'It was the first time that I knew I didn't have to conform, I didn't have to change who I am.'
Read more »