<story><title>Slack Is Going Public Without an IPO – How a Direct Listing Works</title><url>http://fortune.com/2019/06/20/slack-stock-ipo-dpo-direct-listing/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sixhobbits</author><text>&amp;gt; In an IPO, SEC rules typically restrict shareholders from selling shares until six months after the offering. A direct offering makes it much easier for employees and early investors to cash out as soon as the first day of trading. This can be a big help for investors in companies that have waited to go public, which many of the best-known tech companies have been doing for years&lt;p&gt;Is it wrong to interpret this as other people expecting the bubble to pop soon and wanting to pass the bag sooner rather than later?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>randomsearch</author><text>I don’t know, but I do think you can take the recent spate of high profile IPOs as an indicator that a lot of people want to “cash out” (sell their shares) or “cash in” (raise money whilst the market is bullish) right now. Presumably they think the market won’t get much better.&lt;p&gt;It seems pretty obvious that we’re in a bubble, given the excessive valuations and obvious signs such as the incredible rise of WeWork and “me too” startup culture. But the nature of a bubble is that such things are normalised and rationalised. What’s particularly difficult about this bubble is that economic conditions have conspired to maintain it far longer that the .com boom, which has meant predictions of the burst have been premature.&lt;p&gt;I definitely think we’re in a better place than the late 90s, but it’s still a bubble. Perhaps such cyclic swings are inevitable; just wish we’d done more constructive and positive things than Uber, Airbnb, Facebook, Twitter, with this era of cheap money. Could have had more Teslas and SpaceXs.</text></comment>
<story><title>Slack Is Going Public Without an IPO – How a Direct Listing Works</title><url>http://fortune.com/2019/06/20/slack-stock-ipo-dpo-direct-listing/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sixhobbits</author><text>&amp;gt; In an IPO, SEC rules typically restrict shareholders from selling shares until six months after the offering. A direct offering makes it much easier for employees and early investors to cash out as soon as the first day of trading. This can be a big help for investors in companies that have waited to go public, which many of the best-known tech companies have been doing for years&lt;p&gt;Is it wrong to interpret this as other people expecting the bubble to pop soon and wanting to pass the bag sooner rather than later?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cdumler</author><text>That is possible, but in theory there has been due diligence to verify the company as an on-going concern. Normally the goal of going public is to let those who took the risk in the beginning to get a payout, given that they have had their funds locked up all this time.  Those who choose to invest now are taking the risks for access to future returns.</text></comment>