Affirm's planned 2020 IPO has been put on hold until next year, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The point-of-sale lender's decision to postpone its IPO comes shortly after Roblox decided to postpone its planned 2020 IPO until next year to seek a higher price, given the strong investor demand for high-growth tech IPOs.
Affirm planned to begin pitching its shares to potential investors this coming week, and was on track to receive a market valuation of as much as $10 billion, according to The Journal.
Part of the reason Affirm delayed its offering was due to the high price spikes in recent offerings from Airbnb and DoorDash, as well as delays at the Securities Exchange Commission due to a surge in listing requests from private companies, the Journal reported.
Airbnb surged as much as 143% in its first day of trades on Thursday, while DoorDash closed higher by 86% on its first day of trading on Wednesday.
Now, Affirm's public debut won't come until January at the earliest, according to the report.
Affirm and Roblox are attempting to strike a delicate balance of not leaving any money on the table by pricing their IPO at too low of a price, yet also not pricing their shares too high, which might lead to a weak trading debut. Meanwhile, both companies are hoping (and betting on) that the IPO window remains open early next year.
A steep correction in the stock market can occur at any time, closing the IPO window, as that's not an ideal environment for a private company to go public.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink believes the recent IPO frenzy is "unsustainable" and could lead to "many accidents."
