After delaying plans to go public, videogame company Roblox Corp. now says it will hold a direct listing of its shares on March 10, a move that comes at a time of heightened demand for at-home entertainment and online social experiences.
San Mateo, Calif.-based Roblox originally planned an initial public offering last year but changed course after company officials decided that the strong trading debuts of Airbnb Inc. and DoorDash Inc. made it too difficult to determine the right price for its shares.
In January, Roblox announced a direct listing and that it had raised more than a half-billion dollars at a valuation of $29.5 billion for the company, a sevenfold increase from a funding round less than a year earlier.
However, Roblox’s listing plans hit another snag earlier this month when the Securities and Exchange Commission requested changes to how it accounted for the sale of virtual currency called Robux. The company said those issues have since been addressed.
Roblox, founded in 2004, makes a free online platform with tens of millions of games. The company’s user base soared through the pandemic as stay-at-home orders meant more people spending time online. It counted nearly 33 million daily active users last year, up from about 18 million the year prior.
