Justworks Punts IPO Due to Muddy Markets

Last week, we reported that Justworks filed for an IPO that could value the HR, payroll, and management company at $2 billion. πŸ’° However, the company has decided to delay its market debut, citing a less-than-ideal investment climate in public markets.

2020 was a marquee year for IPOs despite the pandemic. 159 IPOs raised over $67 billion in proceeds, and 242 SPACs raised $81 billion. While IPOs fared better than SPACs, late 2020 and early 2021 were especially fruitful for most growth names. 🍎 πŸ€‘ That all changed in mid-2021, given concerns about the Fed’s outlook.Β 

Justworks’ decision to punt its IPO might be the most memorable walkback in recent memory, but it probably won’t be the last. The company’s decision indicates that there’s little appetite among large corporations for public markets, especially considering the uncertainty about the market’s performance this year amidst the Fed’s latest campaign. In other words, they’d rather play it safe than sorry.🀷

While Justworks decides to sit out a debut, investors will get to see how an IPO stands up in the current environment when private equity companyΒ TPG goes public on Thursday. The company reported that it would price its IPO at the midrange after the market closed today.Β β˜€οΈ

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AT&T Suffers Major Outage

Those who work at AT&T today did not have a great day, but those who use their services had a pretty good excuse to chill out at work today. That’s because the telecom giant experienced a nationwide cellphone outage that impacted tens of thousands of its customers today. πŸ“΅

While the nation’s largest carrier said it restored wireless service to all impacted customers by midday, no reason has been given for the outages. With T-Mobile and Verizon’s networks unaffected, regulators quickly questioned whether AT&T experienced a hack or other cyberattack. πŸ“‘

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PayPal Pops Ahead Of Key Event

It’s been a rough few years for payment giant PayPal, with shares falling 85% peak-to-trough. Recently, the stock has begun to rebound with other beaten-down tech names but remains about 80% below all-time highs. In other words, it would need to nearly 5x its share price to reach those levels again. πŸ“ˆ

While that may seem a ways off, investors have recently pushed shares to their best three-day run since the end of 2022. That’s because the company promised to roll out new “customer-backed innovation” at an event next Thursday, with its new CEO Alex Chriss saying, “It is very clear what we need to do.”

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Apple Drains EV Resources For AI

After ten years of research and development, Tim Apple is finally pulling the plug on Apple’s electric vehicle (EV) project. Because as we all know, EVs have lost their luster and given way to the business world’s new savior…artificial intelligence (AI). πŸ˜‡

Bloomberg broke the news today, saying the tech giant disclosed the strategy shift internally and surprised the nearly 2,000 employees working on the project. Executives told staffers the project would begin winding down and that many of the car team’s employees would be shifted to its artificial intelligence division, focused on generative AI.Β 

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Only Some EV-Makers Delivered

Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers came out with their fourth-quarter delivery numbers today, sending their stocks all over the place. πŸ“Š

First, let’s start with everyone’s favorite, Tesla, which delivered mixed news to investors. It managed 1.81 million EV deliveries around the globe in 2023, meeting its full-year guidance and narrowly topping the consensus estimates. That was up 38% YoY but slowed from 2022.Β 

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