(San Francisco, CA) - 2020 has been an interesting year for tech IPOs. Many would have expected a complete or near-complete freeze in companies going public with the pandemic ravaging global markets. Yet in true 2020 fashion, the opposite has happened: a flurry of hot companies have gone public this year, ranging from Snowflake to Palantir to Unity. And they're not done: longtime 🦄 unicorn 🦄 Airbnb is also expected to list before the year is out.
But Airbnb's debut to the public markets will feature a twist: a $55 "cleaning fee" will be attached to all shares. Shocked investors will be surpised to find that the $65 shares they were looking at will actually be $120 per share at the end of the day. When asked about the fee, CEO Brian Chesky had this to say:
"That's a great question. At Airbnb, we value beautiful experiences over anything. We want our customers to be able to experience the rich, vibrant tapestries of cultures around the world and ensure that hosts are able to enjoy the financial benefits of helping us do so. When thinking about our IPO, we wanted to be sure our investors got the same, authentic Airbnb experience."
At time of writing, Doordash was considering following suit and attaching their own "delivery fee" to every share in their upcoming IPO.