Palantir Technologies Inc.’s direct listing left some shareholders wondering whether the 17-year-old company was really ready to go public.
A listing date that moved twice, a company known for parsing data that couldn’t find some of its own shareholders, and a complicated twist on an already unfamiliar route to market. Palantir Technologies Inc.’s direct listing had everything — and left some shareholders wondering whether the 17-year-old company was really ready to go public.
Just days into the secretive big data miner’s journey as a public company, some shareholders have privately expressed frustration about the process, with accusations of technical glitches, misplaced records and disorganization that left some investors with an inability to sell shares.Bloomberg News spoke to about a dozen investors, most of whom asked not to be identified as the details are private. Palantir declined to comment for this article.
Joe Mecane, head of execution services at Citadel Securities, said in a Bloomberg Television interview that a direct listing will naturally open later than an IPO, because the price is being set on the morning of the listing rather than the night before.When the shares did open, they started trading at $10 apiece — below the price at which the stock changed hands in some recent private transactions — and ended the session even lower.
Some shareholders expressed relief that Palantir is now public and said they were happy with how the listing went, particularly because trading hasn’t been volatile. Three people familiar with the deal said that Palantir holding stable around a $20-billion valuation is a good outcome, considering the supply of shares that is now available on the open market compared with a regular IPO, when more shares would be locked up for longer.
Palantir’s lead advisor, Morgan Stanley, also acknowledged it had problems with Shareworks, a platform that handles current and former employee stock holdings, during the listing.“We experienced slowness that may have resulted in delayed logins into our system,” a Morgan Stanley Shareworks spokeswoman said, adding that its call centers were open at all times to execute trades. “We will work through any issue that is brought to our attention and ensure that no employee will be disadvantaged.
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