Investors Love Slack—for Now
Summary
The workplace chat company went public Thursday through an unusual direct listing, where it simply made its shares available on the New York Stock Exchange, without bankers. Together these IPOs suggest that even as the consumer tech market is dominated by Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google, companies that sell to businesses can still find ways to compete with the big guys. When Slack launched its chat app in 2013, its most direct competitor was HipChat, made by Atlassian, which had its own successful IPO in 2015. Its hard to find similar examples among consumer tech, where new competitors tend to either sell out to the big four or remain perpetual also-rans. For example, Facebook bought Instagram and WhatsApp before either app could pose any real challenge to Mark Zuckerbergs empire.