Airbnb Finally Files To Go Public After A Profitable Third Quarter
Originally announcing its plans for an IPO back in 2019.
After announcing its plans to go public back in 2019 followed by more reports earlier in August this year, home share giant Airbnb has finally filed for its initial public offering.
The filing comes along with the news that the company has been profitable over the last quarter, having suffered a tumultuous year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and travel restrictions all across the globe. Over its third quarter, Airbnb managed to turn a profit of $219 million USD with revenue at $1.34 billion USD, a massive improvement from the first half of 2020, which saw the company suffer a $916 million USD net loss despite $1.18 billion USD in revenue.
However, noting that another wave of COVID-19 infections has arisen recently, the company is “seeing a decrease in bookings in the most affected regions” and so “expect greater year-over-year decline” in gross bookings as well as “greater year-over-year increases in cancellations and alterations” in the final quarter of 2020.
Airbnb also highlighted in its filing the legal gray areas in which it often finds itself functioning in various regions, which causes it to be “subject to a wide variety of complex, evolving, and sometimes inconsistent and ambiguous laws and regulations that may adversely impact our operations and discourage hosts and guests from using our platform, and that could cause us to incur significant liabilities including fines and criminal penalties, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.”
