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Cloudflare’s IPO filing at a glance: rising revenue, falling losses and risky customers

A day after WeWork’s blockbuster IPO filing appeared, another big VC-backed name has advanced to the next step in 2019’s IPO frenzy.

Web services unicorn Cloudflare has publicly released its S-1, planning to trade on the NYSE under the symbol NET. The company did not disclose the number of shares that would be offered and set a placeholder target of raising $100 million. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan are the lead underwriters.

Founded in 2009, the San Francisco-based cybersecurity and internet services provider grew relatively quickly in its early days, followed by something of a plateau in the past few years. Cloudflare was valued at $6.3 million after a $2.25 million Series A in 2009, and its valuation began steadily rising from there, jumping to $80 million in 2011, $1 billion in 2012 and $1.8 billion in 2015 following a $182 million Series D. The company stayed off the fundraising radar for four years, before raising $150 million this past March amid rumors of the impending public debut.

Key figures

A key challenge for Cloudflare is that it operates in a relatively saturated field, in contrast to some of the other VC-backed unicorns in relatively new industries. Cloudflare counts Cisco, Zscaler, Akamai, Amazon and Microsoft as just some of its competitors, resulting in comparatively more modest YoY growth rates than those in WeWork’s prospectus, for example.

 

Read More – www.pitchbook.com

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Amazon faces EU antitrust probe over use of merchant data

Amazon , the world’s largest online retailer, could face an EU antitrust investigation within days over its use of merchants’ data, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The European Commission has been seeking feedback from retailers and manufacturers since September last year, one of several competition enforcers taking a deeper look into Amazon’s business practices amidst calls by some for its break-up.

European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has said the issue is about a company hosting merchants on its site and at the same time competing with those same retailers by using their data for its own sales.

Merchants have complained about harm caused by Amazon copies of their products.

Politico first reported the investigation last week.

The Commission had been struggling to define the market in which Amazon operates in order to identify where the competitive harm could have been, other sources said. They said the issue was whether to look at Amazon in the overall retail market or in its own niche.

The EU competition enforcer, which can fine companies up to 10 percent of their global turnover, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This would not be Amazon’s first run-in with the Commission. Two years ago, it was told to pay back taxes of about 250 million euros (226 million pounds) to Luxembourg because of illegal tax benefits. That same year it settled with the regulator over its distribution deals with e-book publishers in Europe.

Separately, Amazon reached a deal with Germany’s antitrust authority on Wednesday to overhaul its terms of service for third-party merchants, who had complained of unfair treatment when selling through the world’s biggest online retailer.

 

Read More – www.msn.com