Blue Apron Tops The List For Worst Performing IPOs

Blue Apron was the worst-performing tech initial public offering (IPO) in 2017, according to Crunchbase’s ranking of tech IPOs. The meal kit company launched at $10 before losing more than half its value and ending out the year at $4.29, representing a decline of a little more than 57 percent.

Not too far behind, sports and apparel retailer Netshoes, launched with an IPO price of $18 before ending out the year at $8.19 — a decline of a little more than 54 percent.

Similarly, cloud storage company Tintri launched with a $7 IPO price and ended 2017 at $5.15, registering a drop of a little more than 26 percent. Snap, the maker of social media application Snapchat, launched at a price of $17 and finished the year at $15, seeing a slightly less than 12 percent decline. Chinese search engine company Sogou, for its part, had a launch price of $13 and ended the year at $11.64 — a dip of just over 10 percent.

Crunchbase ranked U.S.-listed offerings from tech category companies with the exception of biotech. Through its research, the website found only two 2017 tech IPOs in its ranked list to be down more than 50 percent, and also that only eight IPOs had climbed more than 50 percent.

A total of 159 companies went public in 2017, and the total raised through those offerings stands at about $38 billion, according to recent Reuters reports. By comparison, newly listed companies raised nearly three times more — $93 billion — in 2014. It appears the 2017 numbers compare favorably to the 106 IPOs seen in 2016, however.

In future IPO news, Spotify, Airbnb and Lyft are all planning to hold their own IPOs in 2018, Reuters noted. Music streaming service Spotify’s offering may be particularly unique as the company is reportedly considering a direct listing instead of a traditional IPO. Its goal had been to go public in the second half of 2017, but the company instead weighed a plan to delay an IPO until 2018.