After a spate of IPO filings earlier this week, including from companies Rent the Runway, Udemy and GlobalFoundries, you might have thought the roller-coaster ups and downs of the market weren’t deterring anyone from going public. Wrong! Today iFit Health & Fitness, a competitor to Peloton, decided to postpone its IPO due to “adverse market conditions.”
That’s one of those opaque PR-specialist phrases that can cover all kinds of factors, from broader market volatility to problems affecting individual companies. Clearly, the overall market is still receptive to the right company, as demonstrated by Warby Parker’s well-received direct listing last week. But even before iFit suspended its plans, a handful of low-profile companies had pulled their IPOs over the past month, as Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, The decision by iFit may be the most telling, however, as it appears to have run into worries about its post-Covid growth prospects prompted by a dramatic slowdown at Peloton. That’s a theme we may well see more of in other industries lifted by the pandemic.