Sonos files for IPO, seeks up to $100m
- Monday, July 9th, 2018
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Smart speaker company Sonos has filed to go public, with the company aiming to raise up to $100m in an initial public offering (IPO).
In the filing, the California-based firm admits that its recent history of losses and expected increase in operating may mean it does not achieve or sustain profitability, while acknowledging that its revenue growth has shown volatility, among other risks in investing.
Despite these concerns, Sonos achieved revenue of $655.7m in the six months ended 31 March 2018, up 18 per cent on the $555.4m it achieved for the same period a year prior. In the fiscal year 2017, $992.5m in revenue was brought in, an increase of 10 per cent on fiscal 2016, while losses shrank from $38.2m to $14.2m.
“Short-term fluctuations and uneven product cadences are built into our business model,” writes Patrick Spence, Sonos CEO, in the filing.
The company has 19m products in around 6.9m homes around the world – these customers are estimated to listen to approximately 70 hours of content per month on Sonos devices. And it boasts a range of partners including Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify, and TuneIn, while integrating Amazon Alexa into the Sonos One and adding support for Apple’s Siri and Google Home later this year.
“We’ve built a software platform that enables hundreds of partners and give our customers unparalleled freedom of choice,” said Spence.
“Our system is not – and never will be – an entry gate into a walled garden. We’re deeply committed to keeping Sonos open to every voice assistant, streaming service and company that wants to build on our platform… More than half our product development team are software developers focused on building a platform that remains open, integrates with multiple services and improves over time.”