Sonos filed for an IPO earlier this week, and is looking to go public pretty soon. With that, we’re learning more about Sonos’ business. Something that wasn’t openly available, seeing as Sonos was a private company. But now that it is looking to become a publicly-traded company, all of this information is coming to light. And there is a big weakness shown in its IPO filing, and it has to do with Amazon and Alexa.
In the filing from last week, Sonos notes that Amazon could cut off the partnership with Sonos at any time. Sonos has a couple of Alexa-enabled speakers in the Sonos One and the upcoming Beam that goes on sale next week. That could be a big deal for Sonos, if Amazon did decide to kill the partnership between the two companies. But Sonos isn’t alone here. Amazon could do the same with Sony, Harman and Ultimate Ears, who all have Alexa-enabled speakers as well. Sonos reported a net loss of around $14.2 million with revenue of $992.5 million when it reported earnings for its fiscal year ending in September. It posted net income of $13.1 million for the six months that ended March 31, 2018.
Analysts at Renaissance Capital believes that Sonos is going to be the third-largest venture capital-backed IPO this year, after DropBox and DocuSign. It will also be one of the few consumer electronics companies to hit the IPO market. But Sonos is a pretty strong company here, considering it does cater more towards Apple customers – having added AirPlay 2 today, to its newer speakers – which means it’ll be able to sell more speakers than some other companies out there. And getting into the smart speaker space is an important space. While Sonos only has two “smart” speakers, these are good options for those looking to get into the smart home world. And that is what could propel Sonos into being a profitable company.