Online video game company Roblox Corp. is going public today in a direct listing on The New York Stock Exchange.
A reference price of $45 per share has been set for the direct listing of Roblox Corp. The stock will begin trading without the company raising any capital. As with previous direct listings, the company won’t issue new shares at a set price. Instead, investors can begin selling shares based on demand when trading opens.
Setting a reference price is a requirement for trading to begin. At $45 a share, Roblox would have an initial market value of about $30 billion. Only a handful of companies have done direct listings, including Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) and software company Asana (NYSE:ASAN). Music streaming service Spotify Technology (NYSE:SPOT) went public through a direct listing in 2018 and Slack Technologies (NYSE:WORK) followed in 2019.
Roblox, based in San Mateo, California, has seen its revenue and user base grow as the global pandemic kept students home and in search of entertainment. The company was valued at $4 billion in a $150 million funding round in February 2020.
For the nine months ended September 30, Roblox had a consolidated net loss of $197 million on revenue of $614 million. While banks don’t underwrite shares in a direct listing as they do in an IPO, they do advise the company on the listing.
Roblox is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, according to its filings, and plans for its shares to trade under the ticker symbol “RBLX.”