Tech

Slack’s unusual direct listing pegged at $26 per share by NYSE for a possible $15.7 billion valuation

Stewart Butterfield
Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield. Getty
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The New York Stock Exchange has set a reference price of $26 per share for Slack, as the company prepares to start trading publicly in a direct listing expected today.

Since it's going public through a direct listing, the reference price is not an official price for the shares. 

In a traditional IPO, the company's underwriters sell the public offering to investors at a set price. In this case, the reference price will be used by the designated market marker, Citadel Securities, to decide when the timing is right to start trading shares.

Slack and its team referenced internal data gathered from secondary markets to get an idea of an appropriate valuation, according to one person familiar with the conversations. 

The volume weighted price was $26.82 as of May, the company said in a filing, though the high and low ranges between trades was broad, the person said.

Slack is expected to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange today, using the ticker symbol "WORK."

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Becky Peterson was formerly a tech features correspondent focused on long-form profiles and investigations into the most interesting people and companies at the intersection of technology and finance.She's broken news on major tech stories including Palantir's work on Project Maven, Peter Thiel's $18 million estate in Miami (which was once featured on MTV's 'The Real World'), Jeffrey Epstein's tour of SpaceX, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's insistence that employees take "the D."Previously, she covered enterprise tech and tech investment banking with a focus on M&A, IPO and venture capital deals in San Francisco. She graduated from New York University with a master's degree in media, culture and communication with an emphasis on technology and society. ExpertiseSilicon Valley, Venture Capital, Investment Banking, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine MaxwellPopular articlesInside the turmoil at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where employees say divorce, Epstein, and vaccines have left some staffers polishing their résumésThe secret life of Ian Osborne, the shadowy 38-year-old cofounder of Chamath Palihapitiya's SPAC who has built the ultimate black book of billionairesSilicon Valley VCs are at war with the 'far left radicals' running CaliforniaInside the life of Ghislaine Maxwell's secret husband, a once-high-flying tech entrepreneur backed by Eric Schmidt who is now a central figure in one of the country's most high-profile legal casesRent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman, one of the most successful female founders, is fighting to save her companyJeffrey Epstein set Elon Musk's brother up with a girlfriend in effort to get close to the Tesla founder, sources sayA drunken late-night assault allegation has roiled the secretive world of Mark Zuckerberg's private family office. Personal aides are speaking out about claims that household staff endured sexual harassment and racism from their colleagues.