Smart speaker manufacturer Sonos filed initial public offering paperwork with NASDAQ earlier today, the world’s second-largest stock exchange disclosed. The Santa Barbara, California-based company is seeking to raise a maximum of $100 million with the move, according to its application, though the figure itself is nominal in nature and may hence end up being significantly changed before Sonos holds its public market debut. Established in mid-2002, Sonos raised over $450 million in venture capital funding to date, according to Crunchbase. The firm is understood to have already filed preliminary IPO paperwork with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission this spring, with late April reports indicating it may target a valuation of up to $3 billion.
Sonos opted for the ticker symbol “SONO” in its first public IPO application. The consumer electronics manufacturer also shared its recent financial results, revealing it lost $14.2 million in its 2017 fiscal year which ended on September 30. The firm was $38.2 million in the red over the previous period, whereas it recorded a $68.8 million deficit in the fiscal year 2015. Its latest annual revenue jump amounted to nearly $100 million and Sonos is now on the verge of breaking the billion-dollar turnover mark over the current fiscal period, with the main implication of the filing being that the company’s revenue is steadily outpacing its losses and will soon lead it to profitability despite aggressive expansion efforts.
Sonos’s IPO will be underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Allen & Co., and Goldman Sachs, the firm disclosed. The timing of its filing indicates that a public listing may be held as early as late summer. Being forced to compete with much larger technology giants such as Amazon and Google, Sonos recently resolved to employ some highly unconventional tactics that allowed it to become the first and so far only company to deliver a smart speaker with support for both Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa. The smart speaker maker is presently also pursuing new product partnerships with IKEA and other heavyweights across several industries.