The Ticker
Why Amazon Wants to Invest in the Worst IPO of 2020
Rackspace can’t get the public markets excited, but could help Amazon maintain its dominance in cloud computing
Welcome to The Ticker, a series that examines everything you need to know about companies going public.
Rackspace, the cloud services firm that first listed in 2008, and was then taken private by private equity goliath Apollo Global, returned to the public markets earlier this month, only to be received with a collective shrug. Unlike other recent public entrants like Lemonade and Vroom, which doubled on their first days of trading, Rackspace (RXT)’s debut on the Nasdaq saw its shares slump by 22%.
Earlier this week, however, Rackspace’s shares rose as reports surfaced that Amazon is considering scooping up a minority stake in the company.
As Jeff Bezos and Co. look to take advantage of the depressed price of 2020’s worst IPO, it’s worth asking why retail investors have been so uninterested in the company. Here are four reasons Rackspace may have received cool reception amidst so much heat (and one reason why Amazon may want a piece of it).
