Yesterday, regulators instructed the Chinese ride-hailing company, Didi, to stop signing up new customers after announcing a cybersecurity review of the company’s activities. As of this writing, Didi’s share price has fallen 5.3%. In today’s edition of The Exchange, Alex Wilhelm suggests that the move isn’t entirely surprising, but it still “stinks in our mouths”, as the agency went public the day before.
When Didi filed for public access, it listed several potential problems facing Chinese companies that have gone public in the United States, including “numerous legal and regulatory risks” and “extensive government control and oversight of its F-1.” What does this news mean for other Chinese companies hoping for stateside IPOs? We will leave on Monday, July 5 to celebrate Independence Day. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a great weekend.
Have you heard of a CEO who has made misleading claims and lawsuits about a funding round? How about a pharmaceutical executive whose curiosity about the former Secretary of State’s Nasdaq Biotechnological Index fell 4.4%? If it’s not clear: Startup executives are of high quality when they post on social media.
Lisa W. Liu, a senior partner at San Francisco-based law practice The Mitchell Group, says it takes a long time to build reputation and goodwill and it’s hard to maintain, but it only takes one tweet to destroy it all.
Liu has six preliminary questions for technology executives with an itchy Twitter finger to help her clients (and additional Crunch readers). And if any of them have an answer, don’t post “I don’t know.”
A report by Brightite Ventures on Europe’s Adtech scene found that this year’s deal flow in remote direction explosions is on track to meet or exceed 2020. According to Rice Spence, head of research at BrightEye, the average deal size is now $9.4 million, three times as much as last year. Still, “it’s interesting that we don’t see a huge increase in contract counts,” he noted.
The trading platform Robinhood has attracted enough users and activity to change the conversation around retail investment – economists will likely discuss the 2021 GameStop story year after year. After the company filed for a public offering yesterday, Alex Wilhelm sorted through Robinhood’s original earnings statement to better understand how it improved year-over-year earnings from $127.6 million to $522.2 million.
